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THE ARMENIAN QUESTION ^ ' 

Before The Peace Conference 



A Memorand 



Presented Officially by the Representatives 

of Armenia to the Peace Conference at 

Versailles, on February 26th, 1919 




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THE ARMENIAN QUESTION 

13eTore Tne Peace Conference 



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In the inline of tlic entire Armenian nation, ivliose elected Dele- 
ijntes from Armenia and from all the other parts of the -xcorld are 
now assembled in doiiferenee in Pans, the .Irmenian \ational Dele- 
gation has the honor to submit to the Peace Conference this Memo- 
randum, ichich summarizes the claims and aspirations of the Arme- 
nian Nation. 



Alter centuries i)t oppression and of siifferiii';'. our nation, at 
the end of the \V'orld AVar, finds itself torn uj) and bleeding-, but 
vil)rating with life and deternn'ned with a faith stronger »han ever 
before to set itself free and to attain the realization of its national 
ideal through the victory of the Associated Powers, which have 
inscribed on their banners the iirinci])Ies of Right, of Justice and 
of the right of peo])les to dispose of their own destinv. 

I\elying upon these great ])rinci]iles, the .Vrnienian National 
Delegation, interpreting the unanimous will of the entire nation, a 
part of which has already constituted itself into an Independent 
]\e])ublic in the Caucasus, proclaimed the independence of Integral 
Armenia and brought tliat fact to the attention of the Allied 
Governments bv a note dated November ,^0, 191(S. 



*()ii P'eljruary 26. 1919, the iVesiilent (if the Armenian National Delegation 
and the President of the Delegation of the Armenian Repuhlic in the Caucasus, 
appeared before the Peace Conference at Ouai d'r)rsay and presented to tliat 
I'xiily this joint menidranduni, which embodies the claims (if the entire \rmcnian 
nation. (The h'rench original fcllnws this in this f)ook. ) Mr. .\haronian, as 
President of the Delegation of the .\rmenian Republic, handed t( i the President 
of the Peace Conference a separate memorandum, which summarizes the series 
of events in Northern Armenia which culminated in the establishment of the 
Republic of Armenia. The French original and luiglish translation (if that 
memorandum are printed elsewhere in this book. 



Armenia has won her right to independence by her voluntary 
and spontaneous participation in the war on the three fronts of 
the Caucasus, of Syria and of France, and by the sacrifice of 
hundreds and thousands of men, women and children who fell 
victim for her fidelity to the Entente cause, which she regarded, 
from the beginning, as her own cause. On the fields of battle, 
through massacre and deportation, Armenia has proportionately 
paid in this war a heavier tribute to death than any other belliger- 
ent nation. 

The victory of the Allies has freed her from the yoke of her 
oppressors, and her sufferings would have sufficed to justify her 
claim to independence; but as the following outline of facts will 
show, she has other meritorious claims of historical, ethnical, 
political and moral order to entitle her to recognition which are 
no less important. 

The policy of the European I'owers in their relation to Turkey 
has long been dominated by the dogma of the integrity of the 
Ottoman Kmpire. In order to reconcile this dogma of integrity 
with the duties which they felt they owed to the Christian peoples 
oppressed 1)_\- the Turks, the great European States always resorted 
to the adoption of "REEORMS," which were intended to benefit 
the non-Turkish peoples and to secure for them equality of treat- 
ment, without distinction oi race or creed. 

Invents proved clearly the absolute fallacy of the policy pur- 
sued by Europe. The Turks, Old and Young, saw in these 
"REEORMS" l)ut the means liy which to hoodwink Europe, and, 
indeed, by skilfully playing the rivalries of the Powers, uniformly 
evaded their execution. Under these circumstances, the Christian 
populations became objects of susi)icion by the Sublime I'orte and, 
conseciuentl} . found themselves in a more i)recarious condition 
than thcv were at the height of the Ottoman Power. 

The history of Armenia under Ottoman domination for the 
last six centuries has been but one long martyrdom, witli periodic 
massacres. And these persecutions assumed a particularly grave 
character, during the last fifty years, since the Armenians de- 
manded relief from these intolerable conditions. 

The Treaties of San-Stefano (1877) and of Berlin (1S78), the 
Cv])rus Convention and the Reform Measure presented to the 
Porte by the Ambassadors in 1895, were international projects 
intendeci to reform the abuses of the Turkish regime. But, all 
these were found insufficient to remedy the ever-growing ills; yet 
European diplomacy always contented itself with half-measures. 
Every time Europe spoke of "Reforms," Turkey replied by 
"massacres," and Europe kept silent. 

In 1908, the Armenians lent the Young Turks hearty co-opera- 
tion to bring about the overthrow of the Hamidian tyranny. The 
Young Turks, to secure their aid, had promised them an era of 

4 



"lilicTty, eqiKilit}- and fraternity." The Armenians i)ut faith in 
these promises. P>ut within less than a year, the massacres of 
Adana took place, when ahont 20,000 Armenians were butchered. 
And a.^'ain the fatal i)()licy of the maintenance of the integrity of 
Turkey jirevcnted the Powers from inter\-entiiin. 

iM'nally in 1912-L\ following the I'alkans War. \\-hen the 
London Conference was assemliled for the adjustment of Balkan 
problems, the Creat Powers, at the instance of the Armenian 
Nation, brought ])ressm-e to bear upon the Sublime Porte-to secure 
the carrying out of the Ixeforms stipulated by Avticle 6Pof the 
Treaty of Perlin. 

The Ambassadors in Constantinojile were charged with the 
dut_\- of elaljorating a definite project on the subject. The ensuing- 
negotiations, by reason of the i)ersistent opposition of the Turks, 
became long and arduous. I-'inally Turkey was prevailed u])on to 
accept a definite ])lan which, however, was practically ro])bed of 
its original fullness, as a result of the intervention of Genuany, 
who had ahvays lent her Jiearty suiijiort to Turkish di|)lomacy. 
This agreement, signed on bT-bruary X, 1014, was torn into bits and 
cast into the waste basket by the ^■oung Turks, when Germany 
started the Great ^^^ar. 

Under these conditions the Young Turks offered to enter into 
an unholy compact with the Armenians: They proposed that the 
Armenians make common cause with the Tartars to rise in rebel- 
lion against Russia, and in return, Turkey offered Armenia au- 
tonomy. Germany undertook to guarantee the propose! of her 
Turkish Ally. The Armenians unhesitatingly and categorically 
rejected this infamous offer. The vengeance of the Young Turks, 
coolly premeditated and announced in advance, was terrible. 

Here we shall not recite the harrowing stor\- of the massacres, 
nor the dannn'ng tale of the deportations wliich were but cloaks 
Tor massacres, 'i'he awful tales of this re\olting Turkish carnival 
in innocent blood are su])])orted b_\- an o\erw]iebning testimon\- a])- 
pearing in the P.Iue P.ook ])resented to the Parliament by Lord 
Rryce, in \\r. Morgenthau's book, in that of Mr. L. Kinstein, and 
even in the pamphlets written l)y Germans, namelv, the report of 
Dr. j^Jiepage, that of Dr. Lepsius, which has just been issued in 
Pan'si'The 1)ook of Mr. Harr}- Stuermer, etc. P)Ut it is of utmost 
im]>ortance to state here the solemn fact that this infernal scheme , 
tor the extermination of an entire nation had been methodically 
organized b_\- the so-called Go\-ernment. whose orders were issued 
by circulars and telegrams to the officials in all the .Vrmenian 
Vilayets. Many of these documents have since been recovered 
and published. The Go\-ernment of the Young Turks had left 
nothing to chance: nun-der. rai>ine, torture, rape, forced conversion 
to Lslam, destructi(m l)y hunger, all had been carefull\- planned and 
carried out ^s'ith ruthless savagerv. 

After these experiences, our cause needs no further pleading. 

5 



The Allied statesmen, by their solemn declarations, have already 
pledg'ed themselves to the absolute and definite liberation of 
Armenia from a tyranny unexampled in history.* 

The People's War, followed by the People's Peace, must bring 
to Armenia her complete and unconditional independence. 

The Armenians have shed floods of blood to achieve ihis Inde- 
pendence, — not only the blood of the martyrs who have been 
massacred or dep(.irted and then put to death after horrible tor- 
tures, — but the l)lood of the volunteers and soldiers shed on the 
fields of battle, who fought by the side of the Allies for the libera- 
tion of their country. 

Armenian volunteers fought on all the fronts. In France, in 
the Foreign Legion, by their bravery they covered themselves with 
glory. Scarcely one-tenth of their original number now survives. 
They fought in Syria and in Palestine, in the Legion of the Orient, 
under French command, where they hurried in response to the call 
of the National Delegation. In this Legion, the Armenians con- 
stituted the largest element, or more than one-half of the entire 
French contingent. There they took a leading part in the decisive 
victory of General Allenby, who paid high tribute to their valor. 
In the Caucasus, where in addition to over 150,000 Armenian men 
who served in the Russian army on all the fronts, an army of 
50,000 men and thousands of volunteers fought throughout under 
the supreme command of General Nazarbekian. It was with these 
troops that, after the breakdown of the Russian army and the 
treaty of Brest-Litovsk the Armenians, deceived and deserted by 
the Georgians, and betrayed by the Tartars who made common 
cause with the Turks, took over the defense of the Caucasus front 
and, for a period of seven months, delayed the advance of the 
Turks. They thus rendered imoortant services to the British army 
in Mesopotamia, as stated by Lord Cecil in an official letter ad- 
dressed to Lord Bryce and in his response to an interpellation in 
the House of Commons. In addition thereto, by their resistance 
against the Turks until the conclusion of the armistice, they forced 
the Turks to send troops from Palestine to the Armenian front, 
and thus contributed indirectly to the victory of the Allied Army 
in Syria. 



*Mr. Lloyd George, on January 5, 1918. solemnly declared in the House of 
Commons that the recognition of the sejiarate condition of Armenia shall constitute 
one of the war aims of Great Britain. 

Air. IJalfour, replying tn an interpellation by Mr. Ramsay MacDonald in 
the House of Commons on July 11, 1918, said: "His Majesty's Government is 
following with earnest sympathy and admiration the gallant resistance of the 
Armenians (in the Caucasus) in <lefence of their liberties and honor. I would 
refer the Honorable Member to the public statements made by leading statesmen 
among the Allied Powers in favor of a settlement ( of the Armenian Case) upon 
the principle of self-determination." — Translator's note. 

6 



Tlie ArDii-uiiins Juivc been iuUkiI hcllujercnls in l/ii.s -icar. T/icir 
losses, diiyinii tins icar, exceed 1,000,000 if/nc/i, for a luition of 
./.^OO.OOO, are proportionately lart/er than those suffered h\ any 
other race or nation. 



* 



Integral Armenia 



The Armenians have l)een sul)ject to Turkish rule for over 
five centuries, and they are now found scattered throu;^hout the 
Sultan's dominions. A great nunil)er of them, as a means of 
escaping- the Turks' tyranny, have emigrated to foreign lands, 
particularly to Russia and to America. It is (piite certain that the 
major portion of these emigrants will return to their liberated 
fatherland. Therefore, in considering the subject under discus- 
sion, we must keep in mind the ante-war statistics, or Vtetter still, 
those that antedated the Hamidian massacres of 1894-18%, which 
not only destroyed 300,000 lives, l)ut also forced the exodus of a 
considerable portion of the population. It is a fundamenial i)rin- 
ciple of equity that a criminal shall not lie suffered to profit by 
his own crime. The Turks' hideous deeds, which purposed to 
secure numerical superiority for the M(«lem elements, must not 
be allowed to attain llieir end. The voice of all the Armenians, 
dead and alive, must be heard. It is true that the Armenians do 
not constitute the majority of the population in Armenia, but they 
do constitute the plurality of its ijopulation. Notwithstanding 
emigrations and massacres, Ijefore the outbreak of the Great War. 
the Armenians in the six Vilayets, in the \ilayet of Trebizond and 
in Cilicia had a number su])erior to those of the Turks and the 
Kurds taken se]jarately, and their luuuber was e(|ual to those ot 
the Turks and Kurds combined. In 1914, there were in .Vrmenia 
1,403,000 Armenians, against 943,000 Turks and 482,000 ] Curds. 

Moreover, the Armenian population is not the only one that 
has suffered. Even during the Balkans War, the Sultan's armies, 
which were principally recruited in Asia, suffered hea^y losses. 
The present War has actually exhausted the sources from which 
the Sultan recrtiited his fighting forces. On the other hand, mor- 
talitv amon.y the Turkish civil pojiulation has assumed terrible 
l)roi)ortions, not only in the regi(Mis that were invaded by Russia 
liut throughout Asia, where the Moslems have been decimated liy 
e])idemics, and as a result of lack of medical care and of food. 

But, number alone should not be the determining factor in 
fixing the boundaries of our future State. Not only the rights of 
the dead and the degree of the civilization of the people should be 
considered, but the vital fact must not be lost sight of that the 

7 



Armenians are the only element in Armenia capable of setting 
up a civilized and free State. 

Tlic MoslcDi mill n(jn- Armenian populations, ivhich are to be 
found within the boundaries of Armenia, ivill enjoy the liberties to 
he guaranteed by the principles to be adopted by the Peace Con- 
ference. 

The nidst iiiiixirtant one among these populations is perhaps 
the Kurdisli. The Kurds are divided into the Sedentary and the 
Nomadic trihes. The majority of them are mountaineers, who are 
given to rapine and destruction, and have been used by the Turkish 
Government as the principal agents to perpetrate massacres on 
the Christian populations. The standard of their political evolu- 
tion is yet that of the tribal stage. An important part of these 
Kurds live in the country properly designated as Kurdistan, in the 
southern parts of the provinces of Diarbekir and Van (Hekkiari). 
These regions may be detached from the Armenian State. The 
sedentary Kurds may remain in Armenia, of course, under the 
protection of equal laws. 

It is, furthermore, to be noted that a great many of these 
Kurds are of Armenian origin and that with the removal of the 
Turkish influence, it will be considerably easy to cultivate and 
maintain solidarity l)etween the Armenian and tlie Kurdish races. 
The Armenians, for the benefit of the two peoples, shall have the 
mission to offer the Kurds the advantages of modern civilization. 

As for the nomadic or migratory Ivurds. — to safeguard the 
security of the country and to restrain them from the commission 
of excesses, special laws shall be adopted to regulate the conditions 
under wliich they may move from place to place. 

* * 



In accordance with the principles set forth, the regions which 
must constitute the independent State of Armenia are the following : 

Inrst : The seven Vilayets of Van, Bitlis, Diarljekir, 
Harpoot, Sivas, Erzerum and Trebizond (in conformity 
with the prcwisions of the Reform Measure of February, 
1914), excluding therefrom the regions situated to the 
south of the Tigris and to the west of the Ordu-Sivas line. 

Second : The four Cilician Sanjaks, i. e. : Marash, 
Khozan, (Sis), Djel)el-Bereket, and Adana, including 
Alexandretta.* 



*Turkish Armenia lias an area of 101.000 square miles, and Russian Armenia 
an area of 26,491 square miles. What constitutes Turkish Armenia has been 
defined in four international documents since 1878. 1. L'nder Article 61 of the 
Treaty of Berlin, the provinces of Erzerum, \"an, bitlis, Harpoot, Diarbekir and 
Sivas, which have an area of 96,600 scjuare miles, were recognized as constituting 
parts of Armenia. 2. Under the terms of the Ambassadors' Memorandum of 



8 



Third: All the territory of the Armenian Republic of 
the Caucasus, comprising- the province of Erivan, the 
southern j^art of the former Government of Tiflis, the 
southwestern part of the former Government of Eliza- 
vetpol, the province of Kars, except the region north of 
Arclahan (^ee annexed map). 

On the subject of frontiers, it should lie recalled that. Al)dul 
Hamid arbitrarily juggled with the administrative boundaries of 
the Vilayets by incorporating- into them Turkish districts or by 
incorporating Armenian districts into JNloslem districts, with the 
specilic purpose of assuring; majority for the Moslems. To the 
same end, he settled Circassian colonies and other Moslem emi- 
grants from Russia and from the Balkans in the regions inhabited 
by Armenians. Tt will, therefore, be necessary to iiiake a general 
revision of boundaries. In the circumstances, we demand that a 
special mixed commission be charged with the mandate of rectify- 
ing- and detei mining all the frontiers of the Armenian State, con- 
sistently with the requirements of the geographical, ethnical, his- 
torical and strateg-ical conditions. In the Vilayet of Trebizond, 
which has l)een the seat of the Ancient Kingdom of Pontus, the 
number of the Greeks is superior to that of the Armenians; but 
the port of Trebizond is the only important outlet for the Armenian 
plateau to the Black Sea. Greece has no designs on this Vilayet, 
which is so far away from the princijial centres which she claims 
according- to the ])rinci])al of self-determination; ;ind it is in per- 
fect agreement with the Hellenic Goxernment. which has faced 
this question with a broad s|)irit of equity, to which we jtay hom- 
age, that we demand the union of a part of the province of 
Trebizond with the Armenian State. Its Greek population may 
rest assured rhat the Armenian administration will secure respect 
for its relig-i(^n and for its lang-uage, under a regime of fraternitv 
and of just equality. 

On our part, we declare that the .\rmenians of those regions 
that shall be ceded to Greece will acce])t with the same spirit of 
confidence and of loyalty the provisions that shall be luade for 
them bv the Hellenic Government. 






1895, s.TJd .Six ri-()\inces and Cilicia were recnonized as Turkish Armenia, 
•v I'nder tile terms uf the Refurni Measure, dated I'^ehruary 8, 1914, agreed 
u|iiin between (_iermany and Turkey on the one side, and Russia, representing the 
l{ntente and the Armenians, on the other, acting by direction of the Ambassadorial 
Conference of London of 1913, said Six Provinces and the iVovince of Tre1)izond, 
which have an area of 109,100 square miles, were considered as parts of Turkish 
Armenia. At the suggestion of Germany, Cilicia, or Lesser /Krmenia ( the Ijagclad 
Railroad crosses through it), was to become a separate subject of treatment. 
4. L'nder Article XIV of the terms of the armistice granted to Turkey by the 
Allies, dated November 1. 1918, the above mentioned Six Provinces were referred 
to as the "Six Armenian Xilayets." — Translator's note. 



o 



As for Cilicia or Lesser Armenia, is it necessary to assert that 
it is essentially Armenian and that it has always constituted an 
Integral part of Armenia? It was the stronghold of the hist 
Ariiienian Kiiii^dom for al)out lour centmnes. until the day when 
overwhehned hy the Mamehikes of I'^gypt, its last King, Leon V, 
was carried a prisoner to Egypt, and after his liberation, came to 
Paris, where he lived his last days. His remains were placed in 
the Basilica of vSaint-Dcnjs, where his tond) is to iie found today. 

The region of Zeitoun, which is inhabited by hardy moun- 
taineers, a martial and ])roud race, remained always attached to 
its national riglits, and until our day enjoyed semi-independence. 
It is well to recall that at all times, and until today, the Catholicos 
f Sis, the Supreme religious head of Cilicia, has had his pontifical 
seat at Sis, capital of Cilicia. 

The population of Cicilia is principally Armenian and Turk. 
The Arab element figures in it oidy in insignificant proportion. 
In 1914, there were in Cilicia 20,000 Syrians, against an Armenian 
population which exceeded 200,000, despite the enormous emigra- 
tion forced as the result of the Adana massacres in 1909. Else- 
wdiere, in the historical part of this Memorandum, other proofs 
are offered wdiich establish beyond the shadow of a doubt our 
incontestal)le rights to Cilicia. It is, therefore, extremely difficult 
to understand the principle upon which the Syrian Committee 
bases its claim that Cilicia forms a part of Syria, and extends its 
frontier as far as Taurus, as is to be seen from the annexed map, 
published under the auspices of said Committee, and presented to 
the Syrian Congress at Marseilles. 

//'(' do not know of any map of the •icorld. modern or ancient, 
that comprises Cilicia icitliin Syria, of which northern boundaries 
are the Amanits and not the Taurus, and whicli reacli a point to the 
East of Alexandretta. 

The Armenian people without Cilicia, deprived of its natural 
ports of Mersina and Yumurtalik (Ayas), will be condemned to be 
confined within mountains, without direct intercourse with the 
Mediterranean world. That is, it will be like a man without a pair 
of lungs — will be asphyxiated. Its life and its future lie on the 
Mediterranean. 

Moreover, the claim of the Syrian Committee cannot be recon- 
ciled with the ac/r cement which was effected in IQld between the 
French Government and the Armenian National Delegation, after 
tlie Delegation had been informed of that clause relative to Armenia 
which was inserted in the Convention concluded between the Great 
Powers concerninc) Asiatic Turkey. At the time, the National Dele- 
c/ation acknowledged with grateful thanks the promise made by the 
Powers to liberate from Turkish yoke Cilicia and the three western 
provinces and hastened to furnish Armenian volunteers to contribute 
to the deliverence of their country. More than ^,000 of these volun- 
teers were enlisted in the Leqion of the Orient ; whereas, the Syrians 

10 



iiiiiiihn-ed hc/u-crn -100 nil J fOO. Here llie Arineiiiaiis look a lie- 
cisive part in Pd/esliiie. to uhieh Syria owes today its liberation. 

\\\' have referred to these facts so that tlie I'eace Conference 
may render its decision after havin.^- l)een acquainted wich all the 
pha'ses of the subject and according- to the principle of national- 
ities, which it has adopted as the basis for its deliberations. 

\Ve desire, however, to state that if there exists between the 
Armenians and the Svrians a difference of opinion on the subject of 
frontiers, it shall not in the slig-htest degree interfere \vith_ our 
sentiments t^f friendship and of solidarity with the Syrians, 
strengthened by centuries of common suffering, and that we now 
wish to see the creation (tf a free and strong Syrian St.ite as a 
neighbor to the Armenian State. 

\\\- demand that Armenia, within the boundaries specified, be 
placed under the collective guarantee of the Allied and Associated 
Powers, or under that of the League of Nations, which shall guar- 
antee the integrity and the inviolability of these territories. We 
also recpiest tliat they designate one of the Great I'owers as man- 
datary, to aid Armenia during the first years of its existence, in 
establishing its Government and in the organization and develop- 
ment of its economic and financial systems. The aid th.us to be 
extended bv such mandatary should not be, however, even pro- 
visionally, of the nature that is g-iven by a protecting power to a 
dominion or a vassal state or to a colony: that the exercise of such 
mandate should l)e in the interest of the Armenian naiion, and 
should not in the slightest degree interfere witli the independence 
and sovereignty of the State of Armenia. 






THE ARMENIAN CLAIMS 

The program of the ,\rmenian National claims may be sum- 
marized as follows : 

First: The recognition of an independent Armenian State, 
formed by the union of the seven Vilayets and of Cilicia, with the 
territories of the Armenian Republic of the Caucasus. 

Tliat Uiiuiulary Comniissiuiis, ctmiiiosed of tlie (k-legates of the 
ouaranteeing powers, assisted l)y Arniciiian coniiiiissioners. be 
charc'ed to "fix on the simt the detinitive houiKhirie^ ■ d' Armenia. 
These commissions sliall have plenary pcjuers td deternune and di--- 
l)(ise <d" all the difficulties that may i)resent theniseUes with the 
neighljoring cnuntries in the drawing id the final map on the groinid. 

Second: That the Armenian State, thus constituted, be placed 
under the collective guarantee of the Allied Powers and the United 
States, or the League of Nations, of which she asks to be a member. 

Third: That special mandate be given by the Peace Confer- 
ence to one of the Powers to lend aid to Armenia for a provisional 

11 



period. In the selection of the mandatory power, the Armenian 
Conference, which is now actually assembled in Paris, represent- 
ing the whole Armenian nation, should be consulted. The maxi- 
mum duration of the mandate should be twenty years. 

Fourth : That an indemnity be fixed by the Peace Conference 
to repair all damages suffered by the Armenian nation through 
massacres, deportations, plunder and destruction of property. 

Armenia, on lier part, shall assume her share of the consoliclated 
Ottoman pnhlic ileht prior to the war. 

Fifth: That the aiding Power be charged with the following 
mandate : 

(a) To hring alxnit the evacuation 1)\- the Turks, Tartars and 
others of all the Armenian territories : 

(b) To carry out the general disarmament of the populations: 

(c) To ex])el and punish all those who have participated in the 
massacres, committed excesses on the population : taken part in 
plunder, and those who have benefited b)' the booty of the victims ; 

(d) To expel from the country all the disturbinor elements and 
the lawless nomadic tribes : 

(e) To return to their homes all the Mouhajirs, (Moslem 
colonies) who have been brought into the country during the 
Hamidian regime and by the Young Turks ; 

(f) To take all the necessary steps within and without the 
country to bring back to their faith all the wimien and children and 
the forced converts and liberate those that are locked up in the 
harems. 

Turkey must undertake to pay the full value of all the requisitions 
she has made and also restore, with ec|uitable indemnity, all the real 
estate, wherever situated, to their rightful Armenian owners, and 
also the Churches, schools, monasteries with their estates, real or 
personal, which have been unlawfully seized from the Armenian 
communities under any pretext. 

The Armenian religious authorities at Constantinople shall have 
the right to take possession of all national properties, and also of the 
estates of all Armenians throughout Turkey, who have died leaving 
no heir, and shall have power and authority to dispose of them in 
any manner they see fit and appropriate their revenues for the needs 
of their tlocks. 

All persons of Armenian origin, resident or naturalized in foreign 
countries, shall have the right to exercise option within five years, in 
their own name and in the names of their minor children, to assume 
allegiance to Armenia, after having informed, however, in writing, 
the proper authorities of the two countries. 

* 
* * 

The Armenians rely implicitly on the .spirit of jn.stice of the 
Peace Conference and feel confident that it will .sanction this pro- 
gram of the Armenian National rights. The Powers, havino,- now- 
better known tlie Armenians, whose national sentiment, vitality 
and the martial qualities have been so strongly 1:)rought out in the 
course of this War, may repose absolute faith in them. The Powers 
will, of course, take into consideration, the native industry and 
the all around aptitudes of our race, as demonstrated in all the 

12 



fields of hiinian acti\ity, which arc the sure guarantees of its 
fitness and its ca])acity for tlic dcvelo])nient of a hig'h degree of 
culture and civilization. 

They may rest assured that with these human (|ualities Arme- 
nia, under a ride of peace, ot justice and of liherty and thanks to 
the good will and watchful aid of the League of Nations and tlie 
co-operation of the mandatory power, shall become rajjidlv a 
nourishing and ])ros])er(ius State and thus become in the Orient one 
of the most important factors of peace and civilization. 

The Armenian question is not essentially a local and national 
question; it concerns the peace of Europe, and upon its solution 
shall depend the pacification, the progress and the prosperity of 
the Near East. 

Paris, hVbruarv 12, 1919. 



A. APIARDNtAX, 

President 

Dclcijat'uui of the Avmcnian I\cpiihlir to 

the Peine Coiifereiiee 



r.( XillOS NUP.AR. 

President 
Aniieuiaii Xatimnil Deleiintioii 




13 



Complementary Notes 



Gil 



icia 



Syrian Cdiiiniiltces have, for simic time past, put in circula- 
tion, pamphlets and maps, by which they labor t(/) makt Cilicia a 
geographical part of Syria." lly its history, its geography, its 
population and its economic relation, Cilicia is a geographical entity 
absolutely dependent on the high Armenian plateau and is clearly 
distinct and sei)arate from Anatolia and from Syria. 

All the Armenian territories constitute a high, vast plateau, 
protected by the mountain chains of the Little Caucasus, the 
Middle Armenian Pontus, the Taurus, the Anti-Taurus and their 
arches. Certain altitudes here attain very high proportions. 
Bristled with mountains and intercei)ted by dee]) valleys, the 
country may be compared to an entangled knot, which, by the very 
striking topograi)hical affinity of its many parts, forms an entirely 
homogeneous and well-defmed geographical unily. This Ls a 
gigantic fortress and an enormous boulevard, wliich extends from 
the eastern blind-alley of the T.lack Sea to the Mediterranean, and 
which has played an imiiortant role in history. It separates the 
high plateau of Anatolia from the plains of l\ur and from the 
deserts of Persia, of Mesopotamia and of Syria. 

The mountains of Kurdistan and of Amanus, which are the 
extreme ends of the high .\rmenia ])l;iteau and stretch to and rest 
almost on the Cai)e of Ras-I\l-l\hanzir, on the Mediterranean, 
according to modern and ancient geographers, are the l}arriers 
that separate not onl}- Cilicia, but also the whole Anatolia from 
the Svrian i)lain. Likewise, the Anli-T;inrus and tlic T.ulgar 
Mountains, constitute the western boundaries of the high Arme- 
nian i)lateau and extend as far as Mersina, on the Mediterranean. 
Also thev separate the four Sanjaks of Cilicia from Asia Minor. 
By its hvdrographical system as well, Cilicia is absolutely distinct 
and sc])arate from its two neighl)ors, (Anatc^lia and Syria) and 
forms a natural ])art of the high Armenian plateau, since its three 
principal rivers, the Tazsus, the Sihoun and the Djihoun, have their 
sources in the Armenian Mountains and their outlets in the Gulf 
of Alexandretta. This Culf itself, embraced by the two arms of 
the mountains of the high Armenian i)lateau, is the natu'al outlet 
lo the sea. 

The histor\ of Cilicia is identical with that of the Armenian 
Uplands. Situated at the steppe of the high plateau, it is its 
natural pathway whose mastery all the Asiatic invaders have 
disputed. It was at the time of the Hittites that Cilicia first 
became independent. It was for centuries a powerful kingdom 
against which the Ixameses and the Touthmes of Egypt strove in 
vain, until its final subjugation by the kings of Niniveh. 

17 



After ag'es of subjection to alien powers, it was during the 
middle part of the eleventh century that Cilicia won her independ- 
ence through the Armenian people and princes who, under the pres- 
sure of the Seljukes, had retreated westerly. This Armenian king- 
dom lasted until the latter part of the 14th century, its frontiers 
expanding or contracting in the course of continual endless strug- 
gles that it had to w^age against the Byzantian Empire and the 
IMoslem Sultanates. During these wars she always enjoyed the co- 
operation of the Crusaders, and of the Latin Kingdoms which were 
founded at Antioch, at Urfa, at Cyprus and elsewhere; and by its 
faith, its commerce, the usages of its C(mrt, and particularly by the 
family ties of its Royal House, she remained always attached to 
the peoples of the Western World. It was finally overwhelmed 
under the avalanche of the Turco-Moslem invasions in l.vS. 

JJ^e need not chvell upon the fact that the term Syria has never 
been a political expression and there has never been a kingdom of 
Sxria. The kingdom of the Seleucides icas founded by Seleuces — 
one of the Generals of Alexander, udio ^cas Greek by race and had 
no Syrian national character. 

A new phase of the history of Cilicia Ijegins today. The peoi)le 
that are about to lay down the foundation of a new fatherland 
u])on its ancient ruins, are not new-comers, but are the sanx' people 
who lived there for centuries, fought and suffered there, and who 
now claim the right of possession of the soil of their ancestors. 
Our claim d(K\s not date from this day, but from the da>- when we 
were vantjuished and brought under alien yoke. 

But it should not be forgotten that Cilicia. as well as certain 
regions of the high Ariiienian Plateau, have never been fully sub- 
jected to Turkish dominati(Mi. Until the middle part of the 19th 
Centurv, small Armenian Communities remained real masters of 
their mountain fastnesses, in j^erpetual com])at against Ottoman 
domination. 

The historv of the region of Zeitim has been, during the last 
fiftv years, a long series of insurrections against the yoke of the 
oi)pressors. The Zeitunians fought, in 1S60, against the 12,000 
soldiers of Khourchid Pasha; in lSh2. against the 35,000 regular 
and irregular forces of Aziz Pasha, and, in 1896, they battled 
successfully against the army of Edhem Pasha which n\unbered 
40,000 strong. In s])ite of all these attemi)ts on the part of Turkey 
to impose her rule ujjon tliese hardy mountaineers. Zeitun had not 
been completely con(|uered at the time of the outbreak of the Great 
War. It remained the incarnation of the living protest of Armenia 
against the 'J'urkish rule, as did Sassoun in another i)art of the 
Taurus Alountains. 

We should not forget that, in Cilicia as in all Armenia, the 
massacres which were periodically organized bv the Turkish 
Covernment, had for their specific purj^oses to stifle in blood the 
protests of the Armenians and to exterminate the Armenian race, 
which conscious of its right and of its merit, resolutely and always 
aspired to independence. 

18 



In Cilicia. \vc have a .imiardiaii of our secular rights, the 
Catholicos of Cih'cia who, during- centuries of agon_\- and lilnod, has 
had, and still has, his Pontifficial Seat in the Royal Palace, in vSis, 
now in ruins, and awaits the arrival of the Armenian Oovernment, 
so that he may he reestablished in his rights and the Spiritual 
leadershi]) of the survivors of his martyrized people, whose number 
formerly exceeded one half million. 

The proportion of the v/irious clouciits of the populalion in the 
four Cilieian S/inj/iks uvis, before the JJ'ar. similar to that in the 
hujh Armenian plateau. The principal population of the eountry is 
constitute// of tliree elements; the Armenans, wliose numher exceeded 
200,000, the Turks icho numhered jS ,000, and the Turkomans and 
Nomadic Kurds, avho numbered about dO,000. The other popula- 
tions are secondary in point of number; there are approximately 
J j,000 Arabs and about20,000 Christian Syrians, in a total popu- 
lation of one-half million. 

The coniposition of the jiopulation oi Armenia (Armenians, 
Turks and Kurds) is entirely different from that of Asia Minor, 
of which the principal racial elements are Turks and Greeks, and 
from that of northern Syria, where the Arabs, Turks and Kurds 
predominate. The Arabs and the Christian Syrians that are to be 
found to the north of the Kurdish and Aiuanus ^lountains. form 
together hardlv 7% of the population: and also in the four Cilieian 
Sanjaks, (claimed by us as integral jiarts of Armenia) as in the 
Cazas (administrative sub-district) immediately adjacent thereto; 
whereas, within about one to two kilometers to the south of these 
mountains, the Arab element constitutes more than half of the 
population. It means that the Amanus and the Kurdisl; Moun- 
tains form th.e natural barrier where in a clear cut and well-defnied 
fashion the limits of Syria end and those of Armenia begin. 

rn(le])endentl\- of these historical, geographical and statistical 
bonds, other conditions which spring from them stronglv and in- 
contestably bind the four Cicilian Sanjaks with the other portions 
of Armenia. Tliese are first the sentimental considerations: The 
seat of our last kings, covered still with the ruins of our con\-ents 
and of our fortresses, where our desperate resistance was put 
down and our independence brought to an end, Cilicia has remained 
to our own day the object of the veneration and aiTection of Arme- 
nians. No power on earth can forever rupture or even weaken 
these ties. Under the heavy hand of ruthless force, a people may 
submit temporarily to such rupture of its vitals, but nexer will it 
resign to it and lie still for long. 

To these sentimental considerations must be added the inexor- 
ible economic necessity of joining by all means this coastal zone of 
the Mediterranean to its .\rmenian hinterland. The vast conti- 
nent;il high plateau needs, for its commercial and industrial devel- 
opment, an outlet to the water. To sei)arate Armenia from this 
gulf, is to amputate its econonu'c arteries — to strangle its produc- 
tive forces. 

19 



"We must also consider the moral factor, which is no less 
important. The Armenians are industrious, energetic and pro- 
ductive, but they are naturally inlluenced by the environment 
destiny has assigned them. They are an Aryan and Christian 
people, almost submerged in a sea of Turko-Moslems. By origin 
and in his outlook of life, the Armenian is a westerner, l)ut he lives 
in contact with the Turks and the Tartars, who are the most back- 
ward peoples of the Orient. This is indeed the most tragic part of 
the lot of the Armenian people. Is it, therefore, to be wondered 
at that Armenia aspires with all the force of her soul to be closelv 
connected with the western world, and to have an immediate and 
quick means of contact with the west? Hence her invincible 
attraction towards the Ijlue waters of the Mediterranean, which 
alone can liberate and deliver her from her Asiatic confinement. 

To shut this outlet (on the Mediterranean) against her face 
is to push her back into the arms of the Turko-Moslems world, 
to the customs and conditions of a hideous life to which she de- 
clines to submit, and against which she will find herself obliged to 
fight, until this window on the Mediterranean has been opened to 
her. 

May we here add that, the Armenians do not claim all of the 
X'ilayet of Adana in Cilicia, much as they are entitled to it. The 
region of Itchil, to the west of Mersina, where the Armenian 
element is to he found only in small numl)ers, ma}- be left out of it. 

* 



Tne Population of Armenia 

Up to the middle part of the Nineteenth Century, the Arme- 
nian poi)ulation formed the al)solute majority in Turkish Armenia. 
During the last fifty years, under the Hamidian and Young Turk- 
ish Regimes, hundreds of Armenian villages, of which we have the 
full record in our literature of that period, have disappeared. The 
Turkish Government has colonized the homes of the Armenians 
with Turk, Kurd and Circausian emigrants from the I^>alkans and 
the Caucasus. On the other hand, insecurity of life, absence of 
administrative justice, poverty, and the tyranny of the Turks 
forced a considerable nmuber of Armenians to emigrate tci Russia, 
to the liberated Balkan States and to America. 

But, in &])ite of all the efforts and schemes oi the Turks, the 
princii)al portion of the Armenian peoi)le remained and clung to its 
aiiCestral soil with a desperate tenacity. It has always formed, 
until the beginning of the World W^ar, the most important element 
of the popitlation of Armenia, not only by its intellectual superi- 
ority and its economic activity, but also l)y its numerical superi- 
ority over all the other elements of the population. 

20 



AA'liat was the miniher of tlic pojjnlation of Armenia prior to 
the massacix's, and what were the ])riipi)rtions among- the \'arious 
elements? Not the slightest attention should be given to Turkish 
data on these subjects. 

No scientific census has ever l)een taken hy tlie Go\ernment 
of the Turks and no relialile statistics on anything has ever been 
])repared liy the Turks. The Turkish Government has always 
falsified statistics, with the dehberate purpose of presenting- the 
Armenians as only an insignificant minority in Armenia. 

We cite hereinI)elow a few instances of these falsifications: 

The Turkish Go\'ernment gives as 80,000 the number of the 
Armenians in the Vilayet of \'an. It has been established beyond 
the possibility of contradiction that the Armenians in this Vilayet, 
who have found refuge in Russian Armenia during the Great VVar, 
numbered over 220,000. 

At the southern end of .\rmenia, in the Sanjak of Marash. in 
Cicilia, the Turkish Government counts about 4,200 Armenians, 
whereas, in the City of Marash alone there are, according to 
Elisee Reclus, more than 20,000 Armenians, or one half of the 
population of the city. Zeitun, which is situated in the Sanjak of 
Marash, with its eight villages, according to the statistics which 
were compiled right on the spot in 1S80, had 27.460 .\rmenians as 
against 8,344 Moslems. 

According to the Turkish Government statistics, there are to 
be found a total of 848,000 Armenians in the nine Vilayets of Van, 
Bitlis, Diarbekir, Harpoot, Krzerum. Trebizond, Sivas, Adana and 
Aleppo. Whereas, the .\merican Con-in-iittee for Armenian and 
S}'riaii Relief, in its fifth bulletin, published in 1916, states that the 
number of Armenians massacred in Armenia is between 600,000 
and 850,000: the number of those de])orted to Zor, Aleppo and 
Damascus, 486,000: the muulier of those deported to the interior 
of Anatolia, 300,000, and those who have found refuge in the Cau- 
casus, 200,000. If we add to these figures, the number of victims 
to cholera among the refugees in the Caucasus, that of those who 
have been forced to accept Islam, and the women and children who 
have been confined within the homes of their ojipressors, we can 
clearly see that the figure given by the Turks is smaller than one 
half of the actual figures. 

Tlie customary system which the Turkish Goxcrnment follows 
in the prej^aration of its statistics is this: First, without modifying 
materially the total number of the ])opulation it reduces, as far 
as possible, the number of the Christians, and then adds the differ- 
ence to that of the Moslems: Second, it evades to give the precise 
numbers of the nationalities and classifies them in Itlocks accord- 
ing to their religion, and gives separate figures for the Orthodox, 
Protestant and Catholic Armenians, whereas they uni*e in one 
figure all the Moslems, including the Turks, the Tartars, the Tur- 
komans, the different Kurdish races and tribes, the Circassians, 
the Zazas, the Arabs, the Persians, the Gypsies and others, without 
regard to the fact that, these are totally different from them bv 

21 



race, mode of living;, degree of culture and particularly political 
bent. 

It is on such false bases as these that all the ethnographical 
maps have been heretofore founded, and which, cjuite naturally, 
have not failed to inllnence erroneously the lun-<ipean public 
opinion. 

The ethnological question of the Turkish Empire cannot be 
a])]n-oached and studied as it is done in lun'opean Countries. It 
would l)e al)solutely illog'ical to create political national units in 
Turkish Asia, l)ased on the ethnographical condition of a given 
region, with the purpose of applying the principle of natii)nalities. 
In Turkey there are none but political (juestions ; and the ethnic 
condition of a given region of tlie Empire, at a given period, pre- 
sents just the effect of a political situation produced as the result 
of the calculated eft'ort of the Government. 

It is not logical, therefore, to take a given eft'ect as premise in 
order to destroy the cause. Until the treaty of Ilerlin, .\rmenia, 
oppressed as she was for six centuries, presented a compact Arme- 
nian population, which formed an absolute majority. Since the 
conclusion of the treaty of Berlin, which was to guarantee for the 
Armenians security of life, and of possession, the ethnographical 
aspect of Armenia has been radically transformed by violence and 
b\' massacre. In comparing the statistics prepared by the Arme- 
nian Patriarchate in 1882 and 1912, it is seen that the number of 
Armenians in Turkey in 1882 reached 2,600,000, of which 1 .680,000 
were found in the six vilayets; whereas in 1912, these figures fell 
respectively to 2,100,000 and 1,018,000. This means a total decrease 
of 500,000 persons in the total number of Armenians in Turkey. 
As a matter of fact, the decrease in number in the six vilayets has 
been 662,000, which means that outside of Armenia, the number 
of the Armenians in Turkey had increased by 162,000. This is an 
eloquent evidence of the fact that the ethnographical question in 
Turkev functions in sympathy with and reflects the nature of the 
political question. Tlie fact that in thirty years, (1882-1912), the 
number of the Armenians in the six vilayets, instead of increasing, 
has decreased by 662,000, whereas the number of the Armenians 
in the other parts of Turkey has increased by 162,000, clearly indi- 
cates that Turkish oppression in the other parts of Turkey has 
l)een less vigorous than in the six vilayets. To revert to the total 
decrease in the number of the Armenians, can we believe that this 
decrease has been 500,000 only? Most assuredly not. A prolific 
race, such as the Armenian is, should have increased during the 
period of thirty years by not less than 500,000. It follows then 
that the nund)er of Armenians destroyed by the Turks during the 
l)eriod of thirty years was in reality 1,000,000, to which should be 
added 100,000, those who have emigrated to foreign lands as result 
of Turkish misrule. 

One million Armenians have perished, during this War. 
Hence, since the treaty of Berlin, by which the Powers solemnly 
covenanted to guarantee the security of the Armenians, more than 

22 



two million of them have been destroyed by the Turks. It is im- 
possible to believe that the Powers, now standing on an ethno- 
graphical condition created directly by their own omission, and 
Turkish violence, would or could deny the purely Armenian char- 
acter of Armenia. 

Hut the ethnological situation in Turkev has not lieen the 
product of arljitrary whim during- the last forty years only. It has 
ever been so since the foundation of the Turkish Km[)ire. The 
ethnographical aspect of Turkey, since its conquest by the Turks, 
has invariably and uniformly represented the etTect of tlie policy 
of suppression, which all the Turkish rulers adopted against the 
concpiered races. When the Turks founded their Empire, Asia 
Minor proper had a compact Oreek ])o])ulation. Today there is 
there a fairly comi)act Turkish i)opulati(jn, with Greek infiltrations 
and groups along the coastal regions. What, then, has l)rought 
about this transformation? History shows that when wild tribes 
have invaded a civilized country, they have been assimilated by 
the con(piered races with a superior civilization, which took place 
in the case of the Franks in (^laul, of Lombards in Italv, of Bulgars 
in Bulgaria. Turkey alone makes exception to this historical law; 
and this exception has been the result of a policy of massacres 
followed by the settlement of Turkish colonies on the lands of the 
victims of Turkish barbarity. In order to consolidate their mili- 
tary conquests, the Turks ha\e always resorted to this mode of 
colonization. They have also availed themselves of other agencies 
to attain the same end, namely, the creation of Jaimissaries and 
Hamidian Kurd irregulars, who were used for the destruction of 
Christian elements. 

These considerations demonstrate that the application of the 
principle of nationalities in Turkey cannot be based on a given 
ethnographical condition, which is the direct result of the flagrant 
violation of that principle. The War has made it necessary to 
resolve the prolilem as it should be resolved. The ethnographical 
aspect of the Turkish Enq)ire has been today radically changed 
from what it was four years ago. Its peoples have been trans- 
formed into nomadic masses. On what enthnogTa])hical data are 
we, then, to base the ]irinci])le of nationalities? 

Quite evidently, there is but one serious basis that can and 
will be considered: the historical rights of its racial elements. 
Speaking in the terms of ethnography, it should be recalled that, 
the Balkan Peo])les, at tlie time of their restoration to independ- 
ence, were confronted witli the same difficulty as the \rmenians 
are today. Armenia too sliould be allowed to regain her indepen- 
dence as did the T.alkan Teoijlcs, in realization of the principle 
of "Armenia for .Armenians," hallowed by six centuries of martyr- 
dom. The ethnic situation in Armenia todav is not anv more 
precarious than that of Bulgaria was in 187h. This assertion finds 
a clear substantiation by the comparati\-e table of statistics, 
annexed to this memorandum marked .S. the one concerning the 
Bulgarians in IXJd. according to a re])ort of Mr. Aubarel, Consul 

23 



at Roustcli(nik, made to his government, and reproduced in tlie 
bulletin De la Societe Geographique, August, 1876; and the other 
concerning Armenia, according to a census taken !)y the Armenian 
Patriarchate in 1912. (See annex No. 5.) 

Is it necessary to recall that, Greece at the time of the declara- 
tion of her independence in 1828, contained lietween 300,000 and 
400,000 Greeks? 

But, apart from the fundamental affirmative facts in our 
favor, a careful examination of the ethnographical situation arlii- 
trarily created Ijy the Turks in Armenia shows that the essential 
racial element in Armenia is still today, despite the methodical 
massacres, \he Armenian people. 

If we examine the statistics prepared hy the Armenian Patri- 
archate of Constantinojjle and also other Armenian documents, 
we see that the num])er of the Armenian jjopulation in Turkey 
exceeded, at the outhreak of the War, 2,000,000, of which 
1,403,000 li\ed in Armenia (see, annex No. 2). 

According to the official Russian statistics issued at the be- 
ginning of the War, the number of Armenians, which inhabited 
the south-Caucasus, reached 1,804,600, of which 1,296,000 lived in 
Armenia (Caucasian) (see, annex No. 3). If we add to these 
fig'ures the number of the Armenians known to be in foreign coun- 
tries, which is 823,000, we obtain a grand total of the Armenians 
before the War of 4,470,000 (see, annex No. 4). 

Of this number, ai)])roximately 2,700,000 lived in the mother 
country, and more than 1,000,000 in the adjacent regions. 

The number of Turks who then lived in Armenia was 
1,005,000; that of Tartars, 537,000: that of Kurds and Nomadic 
Turkomans, 555.000; Moslems, Total, 2,308,000. Hence, 

1. The Armenians constituted in Armenia the relative majority, 
or the plurality of the population ; 

2. In Turkish Armenia, they were shghtly less in numtjer than 
all the other Moslem elements combined ; 

3. They were considerably superior to all the Moslem elements 
in Turkish Armenia and in the Caucasus ; 

4. The number of the Christian peoples formed 55'/'', and the 
other relisiinns, other than Moslem, 5%. 

* 
* * 

This War has inflicted fearful losses upon the Armenians. 
The losses of other i^eoples rarely exceed 10 per cent., whereas 
ours represent one-tpiarter of the total number of the Armenians, 
and aliout one-half of the Armenians who lived in Armenia. 

"There is no longer any Armenian (juestion. We have 
already settled that (|uestion?"' said, cynically, the Turkish Min- 
ister. "Independent Armenia? Yes, that would be very good, 
but unfortunately there are no more Armenians," repeat hypo- 
critically our adversaries. 

To admit this sort of argument would be tantamount to denial 
of all human justice, and an insult to the memory of millions of 

24 



human beings who have been sacrificed for the victory of RIGHT. 
It would be putting a premium upon crime and an approval and 
condonation of the abominable Turkish scheme for the extermina- 
tion of an entire nation. 

Moreover, it is not. fortunately, true that the Armenians liave 
been exterminated. It is true that the numlier of the victims may 
reach 1,000,U00; it is true that a consideral)le numl)er of the sur- 
vivors who had tied elsewhere and those who had l)een de])orted 
have succumbed to starvation and to disease, and that the majority 
of those who remain have l)een exhausted liy continuous battles 
and 1)}' inhnite sufferin.i;": but the major i)ortion of the nation sur- 
vives, and it has but one hope and one will: to start again their 
home fires burning, to rebuild their hearths which are now in 
ruins, to go back to work, and this time, free from alien oppression, 
in a liberated and independent Fatherland. 

Today, of f/ir three and one-half million Anut'nians. 1,^00,000 
are to he found in their native land. Toiiiorro'tC, this nniiiher ean 
easily reach 2,^00,0ih^. In the C.aiieasiis, in Russia, in Constanti-< 
nnhle. in Europe, in K(jypt, in .Inieriea, in the Balkans, and every- 
".i'here, Armenians aicait impatiently for the hour when, stirred by 
hope, they all may return to the land of their ancestors. 

* 

The number of the Moslems in Armenia has been reduced in 
a greater proportion than it is generally supposed. 

I'irst, the \"ilayets which have been invaded and 
occupied by tlu' Russian Armies, such as I^rzerum, Ticbi- 
zond, \'an. llitlis, are, today, \erital)le deserts. Tlie 
major portion of the Turkish population has either per- 
ished in the War or from disease, or has lied from these 
res'ions. At the end of V107. in the X'ilayets of \'an, 
Bitlis and Erzerum, the Turks muubered 4(),:)00 and the 
Kurds 50,000 out of a normal nund)er of M7.00() and 
224,000 respectively. 

Second: In the immediate rear of the battle line, such 
as in the \'ilayets of Sivas, Diarliekir, the Moslem element, 
according- to the reports of German officers, has suffered 
enormous losses as the result of military evacuation, star- 
vation, cholera and typhus. :\t the be.q'innino- of the War, 
the City (vf Di.arbekir had a total ])o])ulation of 55,000, of 
which 22,000 were Armenians, who were deported in the 
Fall of 1915, and immediately replaced by 30,000 Moslem 
emii;-rants from the re.i^-ion of I'.itlis. In May, 1917, the 
resident and innni.t^Tant i)opulation of Dinrbekir had been 
reduced to 6,000. 

Third: With the creation of an independent Armen- 
ian State, tlie majority of the Aloslems tliat now remain 

25 



in Armenia will follow the Turkish Government. This 
has always been the case when a Christian natimi lias 
been liberated from the Turkish yoke. 

Fourth: An understanding- may be effected between 
the Armenian and the Turkish Governments, whereby reg"- 
ular exchang-es of populations may take place. This ques- 
ticiii may even be submitted to the League of Nations and 
e(|uitable conditions agreed upon, since such a consum- 
mation will accrue to the benefit of Armenia and Turkey 
alike, and also promote the Universal Peace. 

In fine, there is today, in Armenia, hardly one-half 
of the Moslem population that existed prior to the War, 
that is even less than 1,000,000, prol)ably composed of the 
following elements: Turks, Circassians and kir.drcd ele- 
ments, 500.000; Tartars, 300,000, and Kurds, 200,000. 



* * 

The following table gives an approximate idea as to 
the proportion of the racial elements that are likely to be 
found in Armenia during the first years of her indepen- 
dent life : 

Armenians 2.500,000 

Greeks, Nestorians. Rus- Christians 3,000,000 

sians, Georgians, Euro- 
peans 500,000 

Turks, Circassians, Arabs. 

Persians 500,000 

Tartars 300,000 Moslems 1,000,000 

Kurds 200,000 

Kizil-baches,Yezidis, Zazas, 

Fellahs 300,000 Other ReliErions 300,000 



4,300,000 *4,300,000 

We have already stated that the importance of a people must 
not be measured by its numbers only, but also, and above all, by 
its economical aptitudes and its degree of culture. 

Historians of remote periods have sigmalized the high merit 
of the Armenians who, by their spirit of initiative, their strength 
of character and their talent and courag'e in undertaking large 
affairs, l^ne always stimulated the development of the commerce 
and industries in Near Asia, and they have been, with the Greeks 
and the Phoenicians, the pioneers of the civilization of the East. 

Tlie Armenians continued to i)lay this important role during 
the Middle Ages, as they have during modern times. W^e can do 
no better than (|uote here the testimony of a German observer, 

Mil l'^14. the Turks constituted about 25% of the population of Tm-key. or. 
their number was estimated at 4,600,000, out of an estimated population of 
18,000,000 in the Empire. The Turks ordinarily include in their own number 
all the Aloslem elements, except the Arabs. — Translator's note. 

26 



Paul Ivhorhach. an apcistle of I'an-(jcrmaiiisni, whi) could not ])os- 
sibly he svispected of impartiality for the Turks. 

"Ill IIh- Turkey of today. n<i\v reiluccd alnm^t within its Asiatic 
contiiics, the Arineniaiis represent a >:;reater eccinoniic force than 
their numbers would suggest. They are. must assuredly, from the 
intellectual as well as the material points of \iew, the most active 
element among all the Eastern peoples. It can readily be asserted 
that, in the region where they are found, they are the only ])eople 
with innate national ([ualities. The Armenian is endowed with an 
energy and a tenacity of purpose or character which ditf'er abso- 
lutely from that which we are accustomed to regard as Oriental 
character." 

in order to ,y'ive an idea as to the economic activity of the 
Armenians in Turkish Armenia, we ])resent hereinbelow the com- 
mercial and industrial statistics of the Vilayet of Sivas, which is 
the least representative Armenian among- the si.x vilayets. (The 
Armenians in Sivas constitute about o4 i)er cent, of the population ). 
It will be seen that even liere all the commercial and industrial ac- 
tivities are centered almost exclusively in the hands of the Ar- 
menians. 

Commerce: lOC) importers; 141 Armenians, 1.^ Turks and 12 
Greeks. 150 exporters; 127 Armenians and 2,^ Turks. 37 liankers 
and capitalists; 32 Armenians and 5 Turks. *)<S00 shop keepers and 
artisans; 6800 Armenians. 2555 Turks, 150 other elements. 

Industries; 153 factories, of which 130 belong to Armenians. 
The technical staff of all factories are principally Armenians. Num- 
ber of factory workers, 17,700, of which 14,000 are .'\rmenians. 

The important fact should Ije noted that prior to tlie \Var, 
2,000,000 Armenians controlled o\-er 35 i)er cent, of the Commerce 
of the Ottoman Km])ire, which had an estimated population of 
18,000,000 to 20,000,000. I'.ut, commerce has never been the princi- 
pal occupation of the Armenian people, 'i'he greater jxirtion of 
the Armenians, or from 85 to ''0 per cent., have alwavs been en- 
g"ag"ed in ag'ricitlture and in smaller crafts in Ttirkev, in the Cau- 
castis and in Persia. The .\rmenians have been, before evervthing" 
else, tillers of the soil and artisans. 

"In the N'ilayet of \'an, they contml." says Rohrbach, "90 ))er 
cent. <if its Cdmmerce and 80 per cent, nf its agriculture. Goldsmiths, 
engravers, furniture makers, tailors, shi>emakers. architects, carpen- 
ters, masnns. blacksmiths are all Armenians. .Mso those in liberal 
professions, such as physicians, lawyers, druggists, are likewise 
Armenians. The same state of things are to be found in all the other 
regions. The activity of the Armenian element is also noteworthy in 
tlie field of public instructiim and e lucational organizations. The 
.Armenian schmiK are lietter and uKjre numernus than those of all 
the other nationalities in Turkey; and what should be particularly 
appreciated here is that they iiave been constructed and maintained 
with the voluntary contributions not only of wealthy y\.rmenians, 
but, more so, with those of the common people and poor communi- 
ties. In 1903. there were 818 -\rmenian schools in Turkey with 
82,000 pupils of both sexes. These schools are under the super- 
vision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. To these sclujols should 
also be added the .\rmcnian Catholic and Protestant schools, and 

27 



also the private schools. In Turkish Armenia alone, that is, in the 
six provinces and in Cilicia, there were in 1903, 585 Armenian 
schools with 52,000 pupils, as against 150 Turkish schools with ahout 
17,000 pupils in the same region. 

"To this state of things, to the general intellectual acti\ity anil 
particularly to the innate love fiir work of the Armenians must he 
attributed the relatively large number of Armenian officials in the 
Turkish administration. These officials are so numerous and the 
amount of work they perform is so great that without them the 
machinerv of the State would come to a standstill." 

W'c tiiid similar tcstiniony in the liooks of all Europeans and 
.Americans who have traveled through Turkey and Armenia 
before the War. 

The proportion of Armenian schools and students, as well as 
that of instructors, is still more striking in the Russian portion of 
Armenia. The number of Armenian students in the Russian, Euro- 
pean and x\merican Universities exceeds 15,000. 

Armenians have distinguished themselves not only in Turkey, 
but also in Russia and iri Persia by their superior administrative, 
diplomatic and military (|ualities. They have given a large numl:)er 
of generals to the Russian Army, administrators of distinction to 
Turkey and to Hungary, and a large number of diplomatists to 
Turkey, Persia and other countries. The Armenians have dis- 
tinguished themselves particularly during the last fifty years, in 
all branches of intellectual activity, literature, arts and sciences. 

The time has indeed arrived for the Armenians to be given the 
opportunity to put their talents and their abilities at the disposal 
of their own country. 

The Armenians are essentially a democratic people. At all 
times they have directed their public institutions by elective sys- 
tems. The ecclesiastical hierarchy forms no exception to this rule. 
The Supreme Head of the Church is elected by the nation. 

Our country has always been the point of division between 
two worlds, two civilizations. West and East. It is precisely for 
this reason that the great shocks between East and West have 
taken place in or around these mountains, and it is also for this 
reason that the great powers of the Orient and the Occident have 
attached so great an importance to the mastery of these regions. 
Thev have snatched them from one another in numberless Wars. 
They have always trampled under foot and devastated them, and 
it has always been the native Armenian people which has built 
and rebuilded and restored them, and which has never permitted 
any great powei to estaljlish itself there permanently. The history 
of .\rmenia has been one of continuous, obstinate and unequal 
battles to defend its individuality, its culture and its faith against 
powerful enemies and races which attacked it on all sides. Ar- 
menia has also suffered for centuries in defence of her Christian 
faith against Moslem invaders. It stemmed for a while the tide 
of the invasions of the hordes from Central Asia, which surged 
forth toward Euro])e, and which finally engulfed the I'yzantian 
l\mpire. 

28 



During centuries, lier political lot has been one of many 
changes. iShe has fornucl and maintained kingdoms; she has suc- 
cumbed to the overwhelming forces of invaders; she has raised her 
head and reconquered her independence in one and then in another 
part of her patrimony, according to the pressure of circumstances. 
Eut whether under the rule of his native kings, or under the yoke 
of the alien, the Armenian has always remained the producer, the 
worker and the owner of his mountains. With his sweat and with 
his blood he has bathed the soil of his country, and his resolute 
tenacity, in the face of tremendous obstacles, has founded a civili- 
zation which is peculiarly his, and which is also the resultant mix- 
ture of the Eastern and Western civilizations. The entire uplands 
of Armenia, from Adana to Sis, as far as Van, and Erivian, are 
strewn with the ruins of cities, fortresses, churches, convents, 
bridges, monuments, which liear witness to his steadfast civilizing 
labors. A literature of great poetic, philosophical and historical 
value, dating from the iMiurth Century, a rich and supple language, 
and a Christian Church of national character, are the noble heri- 
tage of this unfailing, indefatigable intellectual work which have 
been bequeathed us. 

The misfortune of the Armenian people has been that, in con- 
sequence of Turkish tyranny, jtarticularly during the last quarter 
of a century, the civili/ed peojiles of the West have seen in the 
Armenian Ijut a persecuted Christian people, who aroused pity. It 
IS not pity, but respect, that is due to a people which has so nobly 
consecrated itself to the idea of liberty and which has endured so 
much and resisted so bravely. Unfortunately, the Armenian his- 
orv is too little known in the West, where they ignore the inq)or- 
tant role the Armenians have played alike in their own history 
and in the history of the peoples by which they have Ijeen subju- 
gated. Less known are, indeed, our literary and artistic works, 
which reflect the best features of our soul and which we would 
place with pride side by side with those of other civilized nations. 

For thirtv centiuMes, long lief ore Xenophon sjioke of them, 
the Armenians have lived on these plateaus, until our own day. 
Here the Armenian ])eople have played an honorable and worthy 
role, which destiny has assigned to them, as recorded in their 
annals, again and again aftirmed their rights to these territories, 
and after each rqiheaval, have Iniilt and rebuilded what others have 
laid in ruins. All the other elements within the boundaries of Ar- 
menia are secondarv either by their numbers or their inqiortance; 
thev are semi-civilized races which have no arts, no literature, no 
recorded history, and which, in the course of their existence, have 
not made anv contribution to the develo])ment of our civilization. 
As for the Tui kish coiujuerors, who have fed on our blood, on our 
brains and on the sweat of our brow, which have created absolutely 
nothing, thev belong to that unbroken line of hordes which, since 
the time of the Assyrians, have conquered and ravaged our coun- 
try and which finallv have disajipeared from the scene of history, 
abandoning the high Armenian I'laleau to its original owners, the 
Armenian jieople. * ^k * 

29 



Armenian Republic of tne Caucasus 



The iK.irtliern region of our country w hich, speaking generally, 
constitutes the basin of the Arax I'J.iver and which, during the 
course of the nineteenth century, the Russian Government has 
seized bit by bit from the I'ersians and the Turks, represents like- 
wise an essential and indivisible part of the high Armenian Plateau. 
Ararat, Koukark, Ardzakh and Siounik, known since antiquity, are 
the four principal provinces of Armenia in the Caucasus. Here 
are also to be fciund our principal capitals and the maj(.)rit}- of our 
celebrated cities, such as Ardachad, Vagharchabacl, Yervanta- 
guerd, Dvin, Nakhitchevan, Kars and Ani. 

Here was situated our Kingdom of the Bagratides of the 
Middle Ages, of which the capital city, Ani, with its ruins still 
standing, is the best testimony to the high degree that the Arme- 
nian arts, industry and civilization had attained. Here, the princi- 
pality of Lory lasted until the beginning of the Fifteenth Century. 
Here, at Karabagh, the Armenian independence contintted itntil the 
arrival of the Russians. It was the Armenian Meliks (princes) of 
Khania who instigated the entry of the Russians into the Cau- 
casus, hoping that, with the aid of the Christian Russians, the 
Armenians would be delivered from the Moslem yoke ; and, indeed, 
relying upon the pledged words of the Czars that an independent 
Armenian Government was to be reconstituted within the occupied 
territories. Until this day, it is at Etchmaidzin that is to be found 
the seat of the Catholicos, the Supreme Spiritual Head of all the 
Armenians, founded in the Third Century, at the time of the con- 
version of Armenia to Christianity. Tlie most imi)ortant element 
of the population of these provinces, in ])oint of its number and of 
the situation it occupies, is the Armenian (see annex Xo. 3). 

* * 

One of the principal purposes for which this War has been 
waged is the recognition of the rights of oppressed peoples to dis- 
pose of their own destiny, and this principle has been accepted by 
the various Russian Governments which have succeeded each other. 
And since by the breaking up of Turkey, the major portion of 
Armenia has been liberated, it is no longer expedient or necessary 
to leave to Russia an important part of Armenia, for the simple 
reason that these provinces happened to be under Russian rule for 
the last few decades. Moreover, since the end of 1917, all of the 
Caucasus has been, in form and in fact, separated from Russia 
and set up the Republic of the Caucasus. And this Republic was 
then divided into three parts, according to the principle of nation- 
alities. 

In May, 1918, the Armenian National Assembly proclaimed, 
in the name of the 2,000,000 Armenians of Russia, the constitu- 

30 



tion of Russian Armenia into an independent Republic, having 
Erivan as its capital. A Government was organized and an army 
raised. When the Russian Army of the Caucasus broke down 
and left the Armenians to face, single-handed, their age long 
enemy, this Young Republic, with its limited means, faced the 
Turkish Army then advancing in the direction of Kars and fought 
it desperately for seven months. 

Russia, in abandoning the Armenians to their lot, in spite 
their prayers: in bequeathing to them a War which was manifestly 
beyond their power to carry on, by handing over to Turkey by the 
treaty of Brest-Litovsk, without consulting them, the Armenian 
provinces of the Caucasus, Kars, Ardahan and Kaghisman, thereby 
causing incalculable injury to hundreds of thousands of Arme- 
nians, has, by these very acts and by her own free will, broken 
forever, all ties existing between herself and Armenia. 

Moreover, witli the creatinn of a united Poland^, the occupation 
of Bessarabia l)v Rnumania, the independence of Finland, the for- 
mation of a Ukrainian v"^tate and of others, the ar,<;-ument in favor 
of the preservation of the inte.^'rity of the Russian lunpirc can no 
lon_Q"er be invoked. 

It would, therefore, he distinctly a denial of justice to separate 
the ancient territories of Turkish Armenia from those of Russian 
Armenia, under any pretext or in any form. It would, indeed, be 
an amputation of a livin.i^- liocly, which will become a perpetual 
cause for fresh persecutions, oppressions and for destruction of life. 

A sTcat number of the Armenians of the Caucasus, or their 
fathers, were subjects of Turkey until the massacres of 1894-6, 
wdien they found refugx during that period in the territory under 
the Czar's rule. On the other hand, the Armenians of the Caucasus, 
not having sniTered through the recent massacres to the same ex- 
tent that "their brothers of Turkey have suffered, are in a ])Osition 
to furnish to Armenia the elements that it will need in the begin- 
ning for the creation of a governmental scheme, lor the resutnp- 
tion of its economic life. Furthermore, to separate them from their 
brothers of Turke\' would force them to endless and natural eft'orts 
at reunion, and it also would make hea\ier the responsibilit}- of 
the i)ower which sliall ha\-e the temi)orar_\- nn'ssion to aid Armenia 
during her formati\e jieriod. 

Moreover, how can the powers oppose a fact which has been 
already accomplished, in perfect harmony with the principle for 
the triumph of which a Peace Treaty is to be concluded? 

The Armenians of Russia, during half of the last centurv, have 
sacrificed the best part of their moral and physical forces lor the 
cause of Turkish Armenia, because they understood thatthe path 
for their deliverance ran through Turkey, hjitire generations lived 
in the dream of liberating Turkish Armenia, it is rightly for this 
reason that the Armenians of Russia, at the declaratuin of_ the 
AVar, joined with enthusiasm the Russian. French and British 

31 



colors, and in unison with the Armenians of Turkey, formed vol- 
unteer corps, thus proving" that an artificial frontier, drawn by 
foreign governments, was powerless to separate an indivisible 
whole, — one in origin, in hope and in destiny. 

In the name of justice, in the name of our rights of ages, in the 
name of the irresistible aspirations of the Armenian Communities 
of Russia and of Turkey, and in the name of the inexorable his- 
torical necessity which, sooner or later, must trimiiph, we demand 
the absolute and definite reunion of these two fragments of the 
same nation. 




32 



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35 



LA QUESTION ARMENIENNE 

Devant la Conference de la Paix 



LA QUESTION ARMENIENNE 

Devant la Conference ae la Paix 



^ ^ '^ 

Au nom de la Nation AniK-niennc toute enticre dont les dele- 
gues t'lus, venant de TArmenie ct dc toiites les i)arties du monde, 
sont reunis actuellement en Conference a Paris, la Delegation Na- 
tionale Armenienne a I'honneur de soumettre a la Conference de 
la Paix le present memoire, qui resume les aspirations et les reven- 
dications de la Nation Armenienne. 

Apres des siecles d'oppression et de souffrance notre nation se 
trouve aujourd'hui au terme de la conflagration universelle, dechi- 
ree et ensanglantee, mais vivante et asjjirant avec une foi plus ar- 
dente que jamais a se liberer et a realiser son ideal national grace a 
la victoire des Puissances alliees et associees qui ont inscrit sur 
leurs drapeaux les principes du Droit, de la Justice el du droit des 
peuples a disposer de leur sort. 

Se fondant sur ces grands principes, la Delegation Nationale 
Armenienne, interprete du vceu unanime dc toute la nation, dont 
une partie s'est deja constituee en Re])ul)li([ue Independante au 
Caucase. a proclame rin(le])endance de TArmenie integrale et I'a 
notifiee aux Gouvernements Allies ])ar une note du 30 no- 
vembre 1918. 

L'Armenie a conquis son droit a I'independance par sa parti- 
cipation volontaire et spontance a la guerre sur les trois fronts du 
Caucase, de Syrie et de France, et par les centaines de niilliers 
d'hommes, de femmes et d'enfants qui sont tombes victimes de sa 
fidelite a la cause de I'Entente, (|u'elle a consideree, des le debut, 
comme sa propre cause. Par ces j)ertes enormes sur les champs de 
bataille, sur les champs de massacre et le long des routes de la de- 
portation, elle a pave a la mort un tribut plus lourd (|u'aucune autre 
nation belligerante. La victoire des Allies I'a delivree du joug de 
ses oppresseurs et ses malheurs sufliraient a justilier son droit a 
I'independance; mais — I'expose qui suit le montrera — elle a en- 
core a faire valoir d'autres titres d'ordre histori(|ue, ethni(|ue, |)o!i- 
tique et moral, dont I'importance n'est pas moindre. 

La politi(|ue des puissances eurojjeennes vis-a-vis de la Tur- 
quie a etc longtemjis dominee i)ar le dogme de I'integrite de I'Em- 
pire Ottoman. Pour concilier I'integrite de la Turquie et les devoirs 

39 



qu'ils se sentaient envers les peuples clireticns oppriines par les 
Turcs, les grands Etats europcens i)rcconisaient dcs "reformes" 
pour en faire bcnelicier les peuples non turcs et leur procurer I'ega- 
lite de traitement, sans distinction de race ou de religion. 

Les faits ont montre combien cette esperance etait mal fondee. 
Les Turcs, Vieux ou Jeunes, n'ont jamais vu dans les reformes 
(ju'un moyen de tromper I'luirope et ils se sont arranges, dans la 
pratique, en jouant habilement des rivalites des Puissances, i)0ur 
les eluder. Les populations chretiennes, dcvenues suspectes a la 
Porte, se trouverent plus malhevireuses qu'elles ne I'etaient an 
temps de I'apogee de la Puissance Ottomane. 

Toute I'histoire de I'Armenie sous la domination ottomane 
depuis six siecles n'a ete (pi'un long martyrologe, avec des mas- 
sacres periodiques. Ces persecutions ont pris un caractere parti- 
culierement grave dans les cinquante dernieres annees, depuis que 
les Armeniens ont reclame I'amelioration de leur sort. 

Les traites de San-Stefano (1877) et de Berlin (1878), la con- 
vention de Chj'pre, le projet de reformes presente a la Porte par les 
Ambassadeurs en 1895, sont autant d'actes internationaux destines 
a reformer les abus du regime turc ; ils se sont tons reveles insuf- 
fisants, la diplomatic europeenne s'etant toujours contentee de 
demi-mesures. Toutes les fois que I'Europe a parle de rejormes, 
la Turquie a repondu par des massacres et TEurope s'est tue. 

En 1908 les Armeniens donnent tout leur concours aux Jeunes- 
Turcs pour le renversement de la tj-rannie. Les Jeunes-Turcs, pour 
obtenir leur aide, avaient promis une ere de "liberte, d'egalite et de 
fraternite." Les Armeniens ont ajoute foi a ces promesses. Moins 
d'un an apres ont lieu les massacres d'Adana, ou environ 20,000 
Armeniens perirent. Mais la politique du maintien de Tintegrite de 
la Turquie empeche cette fois encore les Puissances d'intervenir. 

Ce n'est qu'en 1912-1913, apres les guerres balkani(pies, au mo- 
ment ou la Conference de Londres etait reunie pour la solution du 
probleme des Balkans, que les Grandes Puissances, repondant aux 
instances de toute la Nation Armeniennc, intervinrent aupres de 
la Porte pour obtenir la mise a execution des reformes stipulees 
par Tarticle 61 du Traite de Berlin. 

Les Ambassadeurs a Constantinople furent cbarges d'etudier 
un projet et d'en arreter le texte detini. Les negociations, pour 
vaincre les resistances de la Porte, furent longues et laborieuses. 
On finit pourtant par iui faire accepter un te.xte, mais amoindri et 
defigure par I'intervention de I'AUemagne, qui n'avait pas cesse de 
preter son appui a la diplomatic turcpie. Cet accord, signe le 8 fe- 
vrier 1914, les Jeunes-Turcs s'empresserent de le decbirer des que 
I'AUemagne cut provixpie la Cuerre. Cela ne les empecba pas de 
proposer aux Armeniens un pacte indigne; ils leur offraient de 
faire cause commune avec les Tartares pour se soulever contre la 
Russia, et en echange, la Porte aurait accorde une autonomic aux 
Armeniens. L'Allemagne se portait garante de I'offre de son alliee. 
Est-il besoin de dire que les Armeniens repondirent par un refus 
indigne? La vengeance des Jeune-Turcs, froidement premeditee, 
annoncee d'avance, fut terrible. 

40 



Nous ne raconterons ni les massacres, ni Ics clcporlations (lui 
ont ete la forme hypocrite des massacres. On en trouvera des re- 
cits, appuyes de temoignages ecrasants, dans le Blue-Book presente 
au Parlement par Lord J^rycc, dans le livre de M. Morgenthau, de 
M. L. Einstein, et meme dans des brochures ecrites par des Alle- 
mands, tels (pie le rapport du Dr. Niepage, celui du Dr. Lepsius, 
(pii vient d'etre imprime a Paris, le livre de M. Harry Stuermer, 
etc. Mais il est imijortant surtout de constater ipie l'(eu\re d'exter- 
mination de toule une nation a ete organisee methodicpiement par 
le Gouvernement, dont les ordres etaient transmis par circulaires 
et telegrammes aux fonctionnaires de tous les Vilayets Armeniens. 
Plusieurs de ces documents ont ete retrouves et publics depuis. 

Rien ne fut laisse au hasard par le Gouvernement, ni les assas- 
sinats, ni les pillages, ni les tortures, ni les viols, ni les conversions 
forcees a Tislamisme, ni la mort par la faim. 

Aprcs de telles experiences, la cause est entendue; les Allies 
ont deja, par les declarations solennelles de leurs hommes d'lUat, 
pris I'engagement de liberer delinitivcment r.\rmenie d'une tvran- 
nie sans exemple dans I'histoire. La Guerre des Peuples, suivie de 
la Paix des Peuples, doit apporter a I'Armenie son independance 
complete. 

Cette Independance, les Armeniens ont verse des torrents de 
sang pour la con(|uerir, mm pas seulement le sang de leurs martyrs 
massacres et deportes, mis a mort apres d'effroyables tortures, 
mais le sang verse sur les champs de bataille par leurs volontaires 
et leurs soldats (|ui ont lutte aux cotes des Allies pour la liberation 
de leur patrie. On trouve des Armeniens combat lant, spontane- 
ment et volontairement, sur tous les fronts. En Erancc, dans la 
Legion etrangere, ils se sont converts de gloire i>ar leur bravoure. 
A peine un dixieme des leurs a survecu. On les trouve en Svrie et 
en l^alestine, dans la Legion d'Orient, ou ils sont accourus a I'appel 
de la Delegation Nationale. Cette Legion (r()rienl, ou ils etaient 
Telement de beaucoup prei)onderant, a forme, a elle seule, plus de 
la moitie de tout le contingent francais. lis y ont pris une part 
consi(k''ral)le a la x'ictoire decisive du (ieneral Allenby, ((ui a rendu 
hommage a leur vaillance. On les trouve enfm au Caucase, ou sans 
parler des l.^O.OOO soldats Armeniens (|ui servaient dans I'armee 
Russe sur tous les fronts, une armee de 50. (KK) soldats et des mil- 
liers de volontaires, se sont battus sans re]Ht sous le commande- 
ment supreme du general Nazarbekian. C'est avec ces troupes 
rpi'apres I'ecroulement de la Russie et le Traite de Brest-Litov-sk, 
les Armeniens, trompes et abandonnes par les (ieorgiens et trahis 
par les Tartares, (jui s'etaient joints aux Turcs, ont defendu le front 
et, pendant sept mois, relarde I'avance tur(pie. lis ont rendu ainsi 
un service signale a Tarmee l)ritanni(|ue de Mesopotamie, comme 
I'a declare Lord Robert Cecil dans une lettre officielle adressee a 
Lord Bryce et dans sa reponse a une interpellation a la Chambre 
des Communes. I^n outre ils ont. i)ar leur resistance contre les 
Turcs jus(pra la signature de I'armistice, attire vers leur front les 
troupes tur(pies de Palestine et contrilnie ainsi indirectement a la 
victoirc de I'armee alliee de .^\rie. 

41 



Les Arnu-nieiis onl done etc de verita1)le,s bcUigerants; leurs 
pertes, du fait de la guerre, (lui depassent un million pour une na- 
tion de quatre millions et demi d'fimes, sont proportionnellement 
beaucoup plus lourdes que celles d'aucun des autres belligerants. 



* 



L Armenie integrale. 



Les Armeniens qui, depuis des siecles, ont ete soumis a la do- 
mination Ottomane, se sont repandus dans toutes les parties de 
I'Empire. Un grand nombre ont emigre a Tetranger, en Russie, en 
Amerique, pour fuir la tyrannic. 11 est certain que la majeure partie 
dc CCS emigres rcntreront dans leur patrie liberee. En consequence 
les statistiques qui doivent cntrer en ligne dc compte sont celles 
d'avant la guerre, ou plutot celles d'avant les massacres hamidiens 
de 1894-9() (lui, non seulement lirent 3(K).()(K) victimes, mais provo- 
querent I'emigration d'une partie considerable de la population. II 
est inadmissible (|ue les crimes puissent proliter a leurs auteurs et 
que le result at (|ue se proposait leur abominable dessein d'assurer 
la majorite et la suprematie aux nnisulmans, soit atteint. La votx de 
l)iis les Amu' mens, des vivmts et des maris, doit^etre ent endue. 
Si les Armeniens n'ont pas la majorite absolue sur I'ensemlile de 
toutes les races dans les vilayets armeniens, ils sont en majorite si 
on les compare a chacune d'elles. Avant la guerre et malgre les 
emigrations de la fin du dernier siecle, le nombre des Armeniens, 
dans les six vilavets dits armeniens, le vilayet de Trebizonde et la 
Cilicie, etait superieur a cclui des Turcs et des Kurdes pris separe- 
ment, et meme cgal a celui des Turcs et des Kurdes reunis. II y 
avait 1.403.000 Armeniens, contre 943.000 Turcs et 482.000 Kurdes. 

D'autre part, la population armenienne n'a pas ete la seule 
eprouvee. Deja les guerres balkani(|ues avaient fait subir de lourdes 
pertes aux armees du Sultan, prestiue uniquement recrutees en 
Asie. La guerre actuelle a acheve d'epuiser les sources du recrute- 
ment ; la population civile a cruellement souffert, non seulement 
dans les regions envahies par les Russes, mais dans toute I'Asie, ou 
elle a ete decimee par les epidemics qui, faute de soins et de medi- 
caments, ont fait de terribles ravages parmi les musulmans. 

D'ailleurs le nombre n'est pas le seul facteur qui doive servir 
a determiner I'attribution des territoires et les frontieres de notre 
Etat. On doit tenir compte non seulement des morts, mais du degre 
de civilisation, et du fait que les Armeniens sont le seul element 
capable actuellement de constituer un Etat apte a la civilisation et 
au progrcs. 

Les populations musulmanes et non-armeniennes, qui se trou- 
veront cnglobees dans I'Etat Armenien, jouiront des libertes ga- 
ranties par les principes admis par la Conference de la Paix. 

De ces populations, la plus importante est celle des Kurdes. 
lis se divisent en sedentaires et en nomades. La plupart sont des 
montagnards (pii ont une reputation de pillards et qui ont ete tou- 

42 



jours, dans les mains du ( iouvcrncnicnt Turc, des instruments de 
massacres. Lour rvolution politiiiue n'a i)as depasse le regime de la 
tribu. Une parlie importante des Kurdes est fixee dans la region 
proprement appelee Kurdistan, dans la partie sud des vilayets de 
Diarbekir et de \'an (llekkiari). Ces regions seront detachees de 
I'Etat Armenien. Les autres Kurdes sedentaires vivront en Arme- 
nie a Tabri des lois. 

11 est a noter pourtant (pie, parmi les Kurdes un bon nombre 
sont d'origine armenienne et ([ue. une fois kinlluence turque eli- 
minee. il sera facile d'elaldir une solidarite entre les deux races 
armenienne et kurde; les Armeniens seront appeles a laire benefi- 
cier les Kurdes des bienfaits de la civilisation dans I'interet mutuel 
des deux peuples. 

( )uant aux nomades, des lois speciales regleront les conditions 
de krtransbumance pour sauvegarder la securite du pays et em- 
pecber les ravages. 

D'apres les princiiies <|ui viennent d'etre exposes, les regions 
armeniennes (pu devronl former I'iUal independant sont les sui- 

vantes: 

r Les sept vilayets de \'an, Bitlis, Diarbekir, Kbarpout, Sivas, 
Erzeroum et 'J'rebizonde (conformement a TActe des reformes de 
fevrier 1914), en excluant les regions situees au sud du Tigre et a 
I'ouest d'une ligne Ordou-Sivas. 

T Les quatre sandjaks Ciliciens, c'est-a-dire IMaracbe, Kliozan 
(Sis), Djebel-Bereket et Adana avec Alexandrette. 

3° Tout le territoire de la Republi(|ue Armenienne du Caucase 
comi)renant: toute la province d'Erivan, la partie meridionale de 
I'ancien Gouvernement de Titlis, la partie sud-ouest du (Jouverne- 
ment d'Elisabethopol ; la province de Kars (en exceptant la region 
situee au nord d'Ardahan) (voir la carte ci-jdinte). 

En ce qui concerne les frontieres, nous devons rappcler (pie, 
quand Abdul-Hamid fit tracer les limites administratives des vi- 
lavets, il s'arrangea pour introduire arbitrairement dans cbacun 
d'eux des regions non-armeiiiennes, de maniere a assurer la majo- 
rite aux musulmans. Dans le meme dessein il installa des colonies 
de Circassiens et d'autres musulmans emigres de Russie ou des 
Balkans au milieu des regions habitees par les Armeniens. II faudra 
done qu'une revision generale des frontieres soit faite. Nous de- 
mandons que des commissions speciales mixtes soient chargees de 
cette rectification avec mandat de determiner toutes les frontieres 
de I'Etat Armenien en tenant compte des conditions geograpbi- 
(pies, etbniques, historicpies, economi(|ues et strategicpies. 

Le nombre des Grecs, dans le vilayet de Trel)izonde qui a ete 
le siege de I'Ancien Royaume du Pont, est superieur a celui des 
Armeniens; mais le i)ort de Trebizonde est le seul deboucbe im- 
portant de toute la Haute Armenie sur la Mer Noire. La (Jrece 
n'a pas de vues sur ce vilayet, trop eloigne des centres jirincipaux 
(pi'elle revendi(pie en vertu du droit des peuples; et c'est en parfait 
accord avec le Gouvernement Helleni(|ue, (|ui a envisage cette (|ues- 
tion avec un large esprit d'equite auquel nous nous plaisons a ren- 

43 



dre hommage, (|iie nous demandons Tadjonction d'une partie de la 
province de TrelMzonde a I'Etat Armcnien. Sa population grecque 
peut ctre certaine que Tadministration armenienne lui assurera le 
respect de sa religion et de sa langue sous un regime de fraternite 
et d'egale justice. 

Nous tenons a declarer d'aulrc part (jue, de leur cote, les Arme- 
nians des regions (pii reviendront a la Grece acceptcront dans le 
meme esprit de confiance et de loyaute la situation (|ui leur sera 
faite sous le Gouvernement Helleniciue. 

Ouant a la Cilicie ou Petite Armenie est-il besoin de dire 
qu'elie est essentiellement armenicnne et a toujours fait partie de 
TArmenie. Elle a ete le siege du dernier royaume armenien pendant 
pres de (juatre siecles, jus((u'au jour ou, vaincu par les Arabes, son 
dernier roi Leon V, fut emmene en captivite en Egypte, puis libere, 
et vint linir ses jours a Paris. II fut inliume a la Basilique de Saint- 
Denis ou sa tombe existe encore. 

La region dc Zeitoun, dont les montagnards, de race belli- 
queuse et here, se sont toujours montres tres attaches a leurs droits 
nationaux, a tctujours joui d'unc semi-indei)endance. II est bon de 
rappeler aussi que, de tout temps, et encore aujourd'hui, le Catho- 
licos de Sis, chef religieux supreme de Cilicie, a eu son siege ponti- 
fical a Sis, capitale de la Cilicie. 

La population de la Cilicie est armenicnne et turcpie. L'ele- 
ment arabe n'y figure qu'en proportion inferieure. Avant la guerre, 
il n'y avait en Cilicie que 20.000 Syriens, alors que le nombre des 
Armeniens s'elevait a plus de 200.000, malgre Tenorme emigration 
provoquee par les massacres d'Adana en 1909. On trouvera plus 
loin, dans la partie historique, d'autres preuves etal)lissant nos 
droits incontestables sur la Cilicie. On ne peut done concevoir en 
vertu de quel principe le Comite Syricn reclame la Cilicie comme 
faisant partie de la Syrie et etend sa frontiere au nord jusqu'au 
Taurus, ainsi (lu'il ressort de la carte (ci-annexee) publiee par les 
soins du Comite et presentee au Congres Syrien de Marseille. Au- 
cun atlas soit du monde moderne, soit du monde anti(|ue, ne com- 
prend la Cilicie dans la Syrie, dont les limites nord, (jui sont I'Ama- 
nus en non le Taurus, passent pres d'Alexandrette. 

Le peuple armenien, prive de la Cilicie, separe de ses ports 
naturels de Mersine et de Youmourtalik (Ayas), serait condamne 
a s'etioler dans ses montagnes, sans relations avec le monde medi- 
terraneen, sans respiration; suivant une expression fort juste, VAv- 
menie serait privee de ses poumons. Sa vie et son avenir sont sur la 
Mediterranee. ~" ' ^ ; 

La these du Comite Syrien ne saurait d'aillcurs se concilier 
avec I'accord intervenu en 1916 entrc le ( iouvernement Francais et 
la Delegation Nationale Armenicnne, lorsque celle-ci fut mise au 
courant de la clause relative al'Armenie inscrite dans la Convention 
(|ue les Puissances Alliees venaient de conclurc au sujet de la Tur- 
quie d'Asie. Accedant alors avec reconnaissance au desir des Allies 
qui lui promettaient la liberation du joug turc de la Cilicie et des 
trois vilayets occidentaux, la Delegation s'empressa de fournir des 
volontaires armeniens pour contribuer a la dclivrance de leur pa- 

44 



trie. Plus de 5.000 de ce.s volontaires s'engagerent dans la Leg-ion 
d'Orient, oil les Syriens ne cuinptaient (|ue 3 cm 400 combattants, et 
prirent part a la victoire decisive de Palestine, a huiuelle la Syrie 
doit aujourd'hui sa liberation. 

Xdus n'avons rappele ces faits que pour permettrc a la Confe- 
rence de la Paix de prendre ses decisions en connaissance de cause 
et suivant le principe des nalionalites ([u'elle a mis a la base de ses 
deliberations. 

Si d'ailleurs il existe entre les Anneniens et les Syriens une di- 
vero-ence sur le trace de la fronliere, nous tenons a dire (pie nos 
sentiments d'amitie et de solidarite a I'egard des Syriens, renforces 
par des siecles de souffrances communes, ne sauraient en etre af- 
faiblis et ([ue nul i)lus ([ue nous ne souliaite la constitution d'une 
Syrie libre et forte comme voisine de I'lUat Armenien. 

Nous demandons que TArmenie, ainsi delimitee, soil i)lacee 
sous la garantie collective des Puissances AUiees et associees, ou 
de la Ligue des Nations, qui garantiront I'integrite et I'inviolabilite 
de son territoire. lilies delegueront en outre une des Puissances 
l)()ur donner au nouvel V.tni. durant les premieres annees, une as- 
sistance i)0ur I'organisation du pays et son relevement economi([ue 
et financier. Cette assistance ne devra en aucune facon prendre la 
forme d'un j)rotectorat, nieiiie ])rovisoirenient, et elle doit s'exercer 
dans I'interet de la nation armenienne, de maniere a ne porter au- 
cune atteinte a la souverainete de I'Etat. 

RevenJications Armeniennes. 

Le ijrogramme des revendications nationales armeniennes 
pent se resumer comme suit. Nous demandons: 

V La reconnaissance d'un lUat independant Armenien. forme 
par bunion des sept vilayets et de la Cilicie avec les territoires de la 
Republi((ue Armenienne du ("aucase. 

Des commissions de dclimitatiun, compusecs de dclcyues des Puissances 
garantes, assistes de commissaires armeniens, seront cliarges de fixer sur les 
lieux les frontieres definitives de I'Armenie. Ces commissions auront pleins pou- 
voirs pour trancher souverainement toutes les dit¥icultes qui se jjresenteraient avec 
les pays limitrophes lors de I'application sur le terrain du trace de la carte. 

2° Que I'Etat Armenien, ainsi constitue, soit place sous la ga- 
rantie collective des Puissances Alliees et des Etats-L^nis. ou de la 
Societe des Nations, dont il demande a faire partie. 

3° Ou'un mandat special soit donne par la Conference de la 
Paix a bune des Puissances jxiur preler son assistance a I'Armenie 
jiendant une i)eriode transitoire. Pour le cboix de la Puissance 
mandataire, la Conference Armenienne reunie actuellenient a Pa- 
rie, representant toute la Nation Armenienne, devrait etre consul- 
tee. La duree du mandat serait au maximum de vingt ans. 

4" (hi'une indemnite soit fixee par la Conference de la Paix 
pour rejjarer les dommages de toute nature subis i)ar la Nation 
Armenienne du fait des massacres, des deportations, des spolia- 
tions et des devastations. 

45 



L'Armenie, de son cote, sera prete a supporter sa part de la 
Dette publique Ottomane consolidee, anterieure a la guerre. 

5° Que la Puissance assistante ait notamment pour mandat : 

a) d'obliger les autoritc-s turques, tartares et autres, qui occupent encore ces 
territoires, a les evacuer; 

b) de proceder au desarmement general des populations ; 

c) d'expulser et de chatier ceux qui ont participe aux massacres, violente 
les i)opulations, ])ris jiart aux pillages ou (|ui ont beneficie des depouilles des 
victinies ; 

d) de chasser hors du pays les elements j)erturbateurs de I'ordre et les tribus 
nomades ref ractaires ; 

r) de renvoyer les mouhadjirs (colons musulnians) qui y ont ete amenes et 
implantes sous les regimes hamidien et Jeune-Turc ; 

/ ) de faire prendre enfin partout, a I'interieur et a Tetranger, les mesures ne- 
cessaires pour le retour a leur religion primitive des femmes, jeunes fiUes. enfants 
et autres convertis de force a I'islamisme ou sequestres dans des harems. 

La Turquie devra s'engager egalement a payer la contrevaleur de ses requi- 
sitions et a restituer. avec indemnite equitable aux ayant-droit armeniens, les pro- 
prietes immobilieres sises sur son propre territoire, de meme que les Eglises, 
Ecoles, Monaiteres avec leurs dependances, terres et biens, qui ont ete enleves a 
la Communaute Amienienne sous una' forme quelconque. 

Quant aux proprietes nationales ou particulieres des Armeniens qui se trou- 
veraient en desherence en Turquie, les autorites religieuses armeniennes de Cons- 
tantinople auront le droit d'en disposer, de les vendre et d'en affecter le produit 
aux besoins de leurs ouailles. 

Toute personnc, d'origine armenienne, domiciliee ou naturalisee en pays 
etranger, jouira pendant un terme de cinq ans de la faculte d'opter, tant en son 
nom qu'au nom de ses enfants mineurs, pour la nouvelle nationalite, et de devenir 
citoyen armenien. en informant au prealable par ecrit les autorites competentes 
des deux pays. 

Les Armeniens s'en remettent enticrcnient a I'esprit de jus- 
tice de la Conference de la Paix et ne doutent pas cfu'elle ne sanc- 
tionne ce programme de letirs revendications nationales. Les 
Puissances, qui connaissent maintenant les Armeniens, dont le 
sentiment national, la vitalite et les verttts gtierricres se sont ptiis- 
samment reveles au cours de cette gtterre, petivent leur faire con- 
fiance. Elks doivent compter avec Tenergie, Tamotir du travail et 
les aptittides, dans toutes les manifestations de I'activite humaine, 
d'ttne race remarqtiablement prolifi(|ue, ouverte a la hatite culture 
et au progres. 

Elles peuvent etre asstirees qtt'avec de tels elements rArmenie, 
sotis tin regime de paix, de jtistice, de liberte et grjice ati patronage 
de la Societe des Nations et a I'assistance de la Puissance Manda- 
taire, deviendra rapidement tin Etat florissant et prospere, et sera, 
en Orient, un des plus importants facteurs de paix et de civilisation. 

La question armenienne n'est pas uniquement tine question 
locale et nationale; elle interesse la paix de I'lutrope, et de sa solti- 
tion dejiendra la pacification, le progres et la prosperite du proche 
Orient. 

Paris, le 12 fevrier 191 9. 

A. Ah.^KONIAN, linr.HOS NUB.^R, 

President President 

de Id Lh'leijation de la Repiibliquc Armenienne de la Deleiiiilion Natieniale Artnenieiinc. 
a hi Conference de la Paix. 

46 



NOTES COMPLEMENTAIRES 



La Cilicie. 

Lcs Comites Syriens ont depuis quel(|ue temps mis en circula- 
tion des brochures et des cartes par les(|uelles ils s'efforcent de 
rattacher la Cilicie a la Syrie. ( )r, par son histoire, sa geographic, 
sa poiHilation et ses relations economitpies, la Cilicie est une partie 
dependante du haul plateau armenien, et tres nettement separee 
de rAnatolie, aussi hien ([ue de la Syrie. 

Tons les terriloires armeniens constituent un vaste plateau 
tres eleve supporte par la chaine du Petit Caucase, la chaine me- 
diane armenienne du I'ont, du Taurus, de I'Anti-Taurus et de leurs 
contreforts. Certains somniets y atteignent de tres grandes alti- 
tudes. Herisse de montagnes, coupe de vallees protondes, le pays 
est comparable a un noeud enchevetre cjui. par les analogies topo- 
graphicpies que ces diPferentes parties presentent entre elles, forme 
un tout homogene, une unite geographi((ue bien caracterisee. 
C'est une gigantesque forteresse, un enorme lioulevard f|ui s'etend 
depuis le cul-de-sac oriental de la Mer Noire iusipi'a la Alediterra- 
nee, et qui a ioue un role im])ortant dans I'histoire. EUe separe le 
haut plateau d'Anatolie des plaines du Kour, des deserts de la 
Perse, de la Alesopotamie et de la Syrie. 

Pes Montagues du Kurdistan et I'Amanu.N (|ui sont les der- 
niers prolongements du haut plateau armenien et (pii vont linir 
dans la Mediterranee par le cap Ras-el-Fxhanzir, sont, d'apres tons 
les geographes anciens et modernes, la barriere qui scqiare non 
seulement la Cilicie, mais I'Anatolie toute entiere de la plaine Sy- 
rienne. De meme I'Anti-Taurus et les monts Boulghars limitent a 
I'ouest le haut plateau armenien et viennent se terminer a JMersine 
sur la Mediterranee: ils separent les cpiatre sandjaks de Cilicie de 
I'Asie Mineure. Par son systeme hydrographique aussi, la Cilicie 
est tout a fait distinct e de ses deux voisines et se rattache au haut 
plateau armenien. car ses trois princii)aux fleuves, le Tazsus, le 
Sihoun et le Djihoun ont leur source dans les montagnes arme- 
niennes et se jettent dans le golfe d'Alexandrette. Ce golfe lui- 
meme, etreint par les deux bras des montagnes du haut plateau 
armenien. en est Tissue naturelle sur la mer. 

L'histoire de la Cilicie est la meme (|uc celle de tout le haut 
plateau armenien. Au pied des liauts plateaux, elle est le point de 
passage obligatoire ipie toutes les dominations asiati(|ues se sont 
dispute C'est au temps des Hittites que la Cilicie fut ])Our la pre- 
miere fois independante. Pendant des siecles elle a etc un royaume 
puissant contre lequel les Ramses et les Touthmes d'T'^^gypte ont en 
vain lutte, iusqu'au jour ou linalemeiit elle succond)a sous lcs_ rois 
de Ninive. 

A'ers la moitie du XT' siecle. une seule fois ce |)ays a conquis 
son independance, grace au ])euple et aux princes armeniens qui, 

49 



sous la poussce dcs Scldjoucick-s, rc-lluaient vers I'ouest. Ce 
royaumc arnienien dura jus(|u"a la tin du XI\^'' siccle, ses frontieres 
avancant ou reculant an cours des luttes sans fin qu'il cut a soute- 
nir centre I'lCmpire Byzantin et les sultanats musulmans. Pendant 
ces luttes il s'apjjuya pres(|ue lnujours sur les Croises et les royau- 
mes latins fondes par eux a Antioche. a Ourfa, a Chypre et ailleurs. 
toujours attache aux peuples d'Occident par sa religion et son 
commerce, ses usages de cour et surtout par les liens de famille de 
sa maison royale. 11 succomba enfin sous le flot des invasions turco- 
musulmanes. 

Nous n'insisterons pas sur le fail (|ue le terme "Syrie" n'a 
jamais ete une expression politicpie et qu'il n'y a pas eu de royaume 
de Syrie. Le royaume des Seleucides fonde par Seleucus, un des 
Generaux d'Alexandre, etait grec et n'avait nul caractere national 
Syrien. 

Aujourd'hui commence une nouvelle phase dans I'histoire de la 
Cilicie, avec cet avantage que le ])euple, (pii va fonder une nouvelle 
patrie sur les ruines anciennes, n'est pas un nouveau venu, mais le 
meme peuple qui y a vccu pendant des siecles, (jui y a lutte, qui y a 
souffert et qui revendicpie son droit a posseder le sol de ses ance- 
tres. Sa revendication ne date i)as d'aujourd'hui, mais du jour ou il 
a ete vaincu et subjugue. 

N'oublions pas que la Cilicie, comme en general tout le haut 
l)]ateau armenien, n'a jamais ete integralement soumise a la domi- 
nation turque. Jusqu'a la moitie du XIX'' siecle, de petit s groupe- 
ments armeniens sont restes les maitres reels de leurs montagnes, 
en lutte perpetuelle contre la domination ottomane. 

Ainsi I'histoire de la region de Zeitoun. durant les cinipiante 
dernieres annees, n'a ete (|u'une longue serie d'insurrections contre 
le joug oppresseur. Les Zeitouniotes ont lutte, en 1860, contre les 
12.000 soldats de Khourchid-Pacha : en 1862, contre I'armee regu- 
liere et irreguliere de 35. (KK) soldats d'Aziz-Pacha. En 1896, contre 
I'armee, forte de 40.000 soldats, d'Edhem-Pacha. Et malgre tout, 
jusqu'au debut de la grande guerre, Zeitoun n'a jamais ete com- 
pletement subjugue; il a toujours incarne la protestation vivante de 
I'Armenie contre le joug turc, exactement comme le faisaient les 
Sassouniotes dans une autre partie des memes montagnes du 
Taurus. 

N'oublions i)as (|ue, en Cilicie cumme dans toute rArmenie, les 
massacres organises ])eriodiquement ])ar le Gouvernement Turc, 
avaient pour seul but d'ctoufTer dans le sang cette i)rotestation des 
Armeniens et d'exterminer toute la nation armenienne qui, cons- 
ciente de son droit et de son merite, aspirait obstinement a I'inde- 
pendance. 

En Cilicie, il y a encore un autre gardien de nos droits secu- 
laires, le Catholicos de Cilicie, (|ui ])cndant des siecles de troubles 
sanglants a eu, et a encore, son siege dans le palais royal en ruines 
de Sis, et attend I'arrivee du Gouvernement Armenien pour les lui 
remettre avec les survivants de la population martyrisee, dont le 
nombre s'elevait jadis a tin demi-million. 

50 



La prdimrtiim des divers elements dc la p(>i)ulation dans Ics 
(jiiatre sandjaks ciliciens etait, avant la guerre, la meme que sur le 
haut plateau armenien. La population ])rincipale du pays est for- 
mee de trois elements: les Armeniens, dont le noml)re ctait de plus 
de 200.000, les Tures au uduibre de 78.000, les Turkmens et les Kur- 
des nomades au nonibre de 00.000 environ. Les autres populations 
sont secondaires: il y a L^.OOO Arabes et environ 20.000 Syriens 
Chretiens sur un tdtal d'un denii-million. 

Cette i)opulati(>n de I'Armenie (Armeniens. Turcs, Kurdes) 
est completement differente de celle de I'Asie Mineure, dont les 
elements principaux sont les "Furcs et les (irecs, et de celle de la 
Syrie septentrionale, ou les elements predominants sont I'Arabe, le 
Turc et le Kurde. Les Arabes et les Syriens Chretiens, au imrd des 
niontagnes kurdes et de rAmamis, torment ensend)le a peine 7% 
de la population, aussi bien dans les (|uatre sandjaks que dans les 
cazas imniediatement limit ro])hes : tandis qu"a 1 ou 2 kilometres au 
sud de ces niontagnes, relement arabe fdrme deja plus de la moitie. 
Cela revient a dire (pie I'Amanus et les montagnes kurdes torment 
la barriere naturelle ou vient tres nettement linir la .Syrie et com- 
mencer I'Armenie. 

Tndependamment de ces liens historiques, geographi<|ues et 
statisticpies, d'autres conditions, (pii en decoulent, rattaclient soli- 
dement les (piatre sandjaks ciliciens aux autres jiarties de TArme- 
nie. Ce sont d'abord des considerations de sentiment: .Siege de nos 
derniers rois, sol reconvert des mines de nos convents et de nos tor- 
teresses, reduit de notre indei)endance et de notre resistance, la 
Cilicie reste jusqu'a nos jours I'objet de la \eneration et de la ten- 
dresse des Armeniens. Rien ne ])eut rompre de i)areils liens: les 
peujjles se soumcttent i)arfois a de pareilles ruptures, mais ne s'y 
resignent jamais. 

D'ailleurs, au sentiment s'ajnute I'inexorable necessile econo- 
mique d'attacher a tout prix cette zone riveraine de la Mediterra- 
nee a son hinterland armenien. Le vaste haut plateau continental 
a besoin, pour son develo))pement industriel et commercial, d'une 
issue sur la mer. Separer rArmenie de ce golfe, c'est lui cnuper ses 
arteres economiques, c'est etrangler sa I'orce product rice. 

Tl y a encore le facteur moral, non moins imjiortant; les Ar- 
meniens sont laborieux, actifs, producteurs. mais ils sont enlizes 
dans la torpeur fataliste qui les entoure. C'est un ]ieu])le arien, 
Chretien, mais i! est noye dans une mer tiU"Co-musulmane. Par son 
esjjrit il est occidental, mais il \it en contact continucl avec le l\u"c, 
le Tartare, c'est-a-dire avec I'Orient le i)lus arriere. C'est la peut- 
etre le cote le plus tragi(|ue de la situation du peu))le armenien, et 
Ton conqoit que I'Armenie aspire de toute la force de son ame a etre 
intimemcnt reliee avec le monde occidental, et a avoir un contact 
immediat et rajiide avec I'Occident. T^e la son attraction invincible 
vers I'azur de la Alediterranee. <|ui seule i)eut la delivrer de son 
emprisonnement asiatiqne. Lui t'ermer cette issue c'est la refouler 
dans le monde turco-musulman, aux coutumes du(piel elle ne vent 
plus se soumettre et contre lesouelles elle serait contrainte de lutter 
juscpi'a ce que cette ])orte sur la Mediterranee lui soit ouverte. 

51 



Au surplus, les Arnieniens ne revendicjuent pas tout le vilayet 
d'Adana en Cilicie. La region d'ltchil, a I'ouest de Alersine, ou I'ele- 
ment armenien est rare, pourrait en ctre detachee. 






La Popu'ation de 1 Armenie. 

Tusqu'a la moitie du XIX'' siecle la population armenienne for- 
mait la majorite absolue dans TArmenie Turque. Durant ces cin- 
quante dernieres annees, sous les regimes hamidien et jeune-turc, 
des centaines de villages armoniens. dont nous avons la description 
dans notre litterature d'il y a 40 ou 50 ans, ont disparu. Le Gouver- 
nement turc a installe a Icur place des Turcs, des Kurdes et des 
Tcherkess emigres des Balkans et du Caucase. D'autre part I'inse- 
curite de la vie, la misere, I'absence de toute justice, la tyrannie et 
la persecution r)nt oblige un grand nombre d'Armeniens a emigrer 
en Russie, dans les pays balkaniques liberes ou en Amerique. 

Mais malgre tons les efforts et les manoeuvres des Turcs, la 
partie principale du peuple armenien est restee attachee a son sol 
natal avec une tenacite acharnee; elle a forme toujours, et jusqu'au 
debut de cette guerre, I'element le plus important de la population 
de I'Armenie. non seulement par sa superiorite intellectuelle et par 
son activite economique, mais aussi par sa majorite relative sur 
tons les autres elements de la population. 

Quel etait avant les massacres le cbiffre de la jxipulation de 
I'Armenie et quelles etaient les proportions entre les divers ele- 
ments? II ne faut jamais, dans une telle question, s'en rapporter a 
des donnees turques. D'abord il n"y a jamais eu, en Turquie, de re- 
censement regulier, ni de statistiques exactes; le Gouvernement 
Turc a toujours intentioJtnellemcnt fahifid les statist7q7ies, dans le but 
cVdtablir que les Arminiens lie sont qii une minority insigiiijiante. 

Citons quelques exemj^les de ces falsifications: 

Le Gouvernement Turc donne 8(>.(X)0 comme nombre des Ar- 
meniens du vilayet de A^an; or il est etabli de facon certaine que le 
nombre des Armeniens de ce vilayet, (|ui lors des derniers evene- 
ments se sont refugies en Russie, est sui)erieur a 220.000. 

A I'autre extremite de I'Armenie, dans tout le sandjak de Ma- 
rache, le Gouvernement Turc comjjte environ 4,200 Armeniens; or, 
dans la seule ville de Marache. il y avait, d'apres Elisee Reclus, plus 
de 20.000 Armeniens. soit la moitie de la pojnilation de la ville. Zei- 
toun qui se trouve dans ce meme sandjak de Maracbe, avec ses huit 
villages, avait d'apres la statistique faite sur place en 1880. 27.460 
Armeniens et 8.344 Musulmans. 

Le Gouvernement Turc donne ])our les neuf vilavets de A'an, 
Bitlis, Diarbekir, Kharpout, Erzeroum, Trebizonde, Sivas, Adana, 
et Alep 848.000 Armeniens en tout. Or, I'American Committee for 
Armenian and Syrian Relief, dans son cin(|uieme Inilletin public 
en 1916, atteste que le nombre des Armeniens massacres en Arme- 
nie est entre 600.000 et 850.000 et le nombre des deqiortes a Zor. 
Alep et Damas de 486.000, le nf)mbre des deportes a I'interieur de 
I'Anatolie 300.000, celui des refugies au Caucase 200.000. .91 nous 

52 



ajoutoiis ;i ccs chiffrcs Ic grnud iKiiiihrc des \-ictinK-s faites par le 
cholera. i)anni Ics rcfuijie-s au Caucase, celui dcs convertis a Tisla- 
niisme, les feinmes cl Ics cnfants restes chez eux, nous constatons 
(lue le chiftre donne par les Turcs est inferieur a la moitie du 
chili're reel. 

Le systeme habituel des statisti(pies dressees ])ar le Gouver- 
nement Tnrc est le sui\-ant: d'ahord, sans trop modifier le nombre 
total de la population, diminuer autant (pie possible le nombre des 
Chretiens et ajouter la difference a celui des musulmans; 2° eviter 
de preciscr les chiffres par nationalites, mais les classer en I)loc 
d'apres la religion: ainsi, ils denombrent separement les Armeniens 
en orthodo.\es,_ protestants et catholiipies, tandis (|u'ils reunissent 
en un seuK-hiffre les musulmans en y engiobant les Turcs, les Tar- 
tares, les Turkmenes. les dififerentes races Kurdes. les Tcherkess. 
les Zazas. les Araljes, les Persans, les Bohemiens nomades et tant 
d'autres. bien qu'ils soient tres differents par leiw race, par leur 
his(on-e. leur vie economi(pie, leur degre- de culture, enfin leurs ten- 
dances politif|ues. 

C'est sur de pareilles bases (|ue toutes les cartes ethnogra- 
])hupTes ont ete etablies et (ml le plus souvent induit I'opinion'pu- 
bli(|ue euro])eenne en erreur. 



* * 



Les (|uestions etlinographi(pies de I'lunpire tuix- ne peu\ent 
pas etre envisag'ees et (I'tudiees avec les memes methodes ([ue celles 
cies pays europeens. En voulant ap])li(pier le ])rincipe des nationa- 
lites en_ Tur(]uie d'Asie pour la creation d'unites nationales poli- 
tiipies, il serait absolument illoo^i(|ue de prendre ])oiir base baspect 
ethnographiques des diverscs reg-ions. 11 n'v a en Tur(|uie tpie des 
questions politiques; et baspect ethnographi(|ue (pi'une partic quel- 
cc^nque de cet empire ])resente a un moment donne n'est ipie I'effet 
d'une situation politi(|ue. Or. on ne pent pas se baser sur beffet 
(piand on veu( supj. rimer la cause. Jus(pi'a la conclusion du traite 
de Berlin, IWrmenie bien (pi'(qiprimee pendant cin(| si(^-cles, ])resen- 
tait une poiuilation arnienienne com])acte. formant une majoritc 
absolue. Depuis la conclusion du trait<:' de Berlin, (pii devait ga- 
rantir aux Armeniens la securite de leur vie et de leurs biens. 
I'aspect ethnogra])hique de I'Armenie a ete transforme radicale- 
ment par la violence et le massacre. En comparant les statisticpies 
dressees par le Patriarcat armenien en 1S82 et en 1012 on trouve 
qu'en 1882 le nombre des Armeniens en 'bur(piie etaif evalue a 
2 600.000 don t 1.680.000 dans les six vilavets, tan(b\ ,uben 1<)12 ces 
chiffres t(Mnbaient respectivement a 2.100.000 el 1.018.000. On 
trouve d(mc une diminution de .^00.000 Ames dans le nombre total 
des Aniu'niens de Tur(uiie. En realit(' cette diminution dans les 
SIX vilayets a t;-te de (.r .2,000, ce qui sip-nifie (|u'en dehors de I'Arme- 
nie le nombre des Armeniens de Turtpiie sY-tait auginente de 
162.000. C'est une ])reuve eclatante du fait (pie la question ethno- 
graphi(|ue, en Tur(piie, n'est <iu'une fonction du deere d'aciiilt:' de 
la question politi(pie: le fait (pi'en trente ans ( 1882-1012) le nombre 

53 



des Armeniens dcs six vilayets, an lieu d'augmcnter, a diniinuc de 
662.000, tandis que celiii des Armeniens, dans les autres parties de 
la Turquie, a augniente de 162.000 ames, n'est dii qu'a ce que I'op- 
pression a ete moins feroce dans les autres parties de la Turquie 
que dans les six vilayets. Pour revenir a la diminution totale du 
nombre des Armeniens, peut-on croire (|ue cette diminution n'ait 
ete que de 500.000? Evidemment non: unc race prolifique comnie 
I'armenienne aurait augmente jtar la natalite, pour cette periode de 
trente ans. d'un nombre (|ui i)eut etre evalue a un minimum de 
500.000. II s'en suit (jue le nombre des Armeniens supprimes par 
les Turcs. durant cette periode dc trente ans, a ete en realite d'un 
million, en evaluant a lOO.OOO jjcrsonnes I'emigration provoquee 
par la violence. 

Pendant cette guerre, plus d'un vtillioti d'Armdniens ont pdri. 
Done, depnis le traits de Berlin, par lequel les Puissances prenaient 
7111 soleftnel engagement de gar ant ir la sccjiritd aztx Armthilens, 
plus de detix millions de ceux-ci ont did tut's par les Turcs. Les 
memes Puissances ne pourraient mainlenant nier le caractere pu- 
rement armenien de I'Armenie en s'ajjpuyant sur une ethnogra])bie 
fondee sur la violence. 

Mais la situation etbnograpbi(|ue en Turipiic n'a pas ete arbi- 
traire seulement durant ces quarante dernieres annees. Cette situa- 
tion dure depuis la fondation meme de TEmpire turc. L'aspect 
ethnographique de la Tuniuie, depuis la conquete, a toujours re- 
flete sa politique seculaire consistant a supprimer les races sou- 
mises. Ouand les Turcs conquirent leur empire, I'Asie Mineure 
proprement dite ne contenait qu'une ])opulation grecque compacte; 
aujourd'hui c'est une population turcpie compacte qu'elle renferme, 
avec des infiltrations grecques sur les cotes. A quoi tient cette 
transformation? L'histoire demontre (|ue, quand des tribus bar- 
bares ont envabi un pays civilise, elles ont ete assimilees par la 
])opulation soumise superieure en civilisation, comme cela a ete le 
cas des Erancs en Gaule, des Lombards en Italic, des Bulgares en 
Bulgarie. La Turquie seule fait exception a cette loi bistorique, et 
cette excei)tion ne s'est prodtiite que par une politique de massacres 
suivie de I'implantation, sur les proprietes des victimes, de ])opula- 
tions turques. La Turquie en effet s'est toujours servie, comme 
d'une seconde armee, de cette colonisation a]q)elee a consolider les 
conquetes militaires par des contptetes etbnograpbiques, et elle y 
a ajoute d'autres expedients tels (|ue la creation d'un cor])s de Jan- 
nissaires, de Kurdes hamidies, etc. 

Ces considerations demontrent (|ue I'apiilication du ])rincipe 
des nationalites en Turc|uie ne pout etre basee que sur un aspect 
etbnograiibi(pie qui est le resultat de la violation flagrante de ce 
meme principc. La guerre, du reste, s'est cbargee de poser le pro- 
bleme dans ses vrais termes. L'aspect ethnographique de I'Empire 
turc est aujourd'hui radicalement different de ce qu'il etait il y a 
quatre ans; les populations ont ete transformees en une masse de 
nomades. Sur quelles donnees ethnographiques devrait-on appli- 
quer le principc des nationalites? 

54 



Evideniincnl il n'_\- a (|u'uik' sculc base se-rieusc ((ui puissc etre 
prise en consideration ; le (Iri)it liisl(iri(|ue dans tons ses elements. 
De meme que les jieuijles balkani(|ues ont pu recouvrer leur indc- 
pendance bien (|u"a la veille de leur liberation ils se trouvassent 
dans les memes diflicultes au ])oint de vue ethnog-rapbiiiue (|ue le 
peui)le armenien, I'Armenie aussi doit pouvoir recouvrer son inde- 
pendance, en realisant le principe "I'iArmenie aux Armeniens" 
sanetilie par six siecles de martyre. La situation ethnoo^raphique de 
l^'^Ai'menie n'est pas plus delicate ipie celle de la I'ulgarie en 187C). 
C'est ce cpii ressort clairement de la comparaison de deux statis- 
tiques, I'une concernant la lUdgarie en 1S7(). selon un rapport de 
jNI. Aubaret, consul a Roustchouk, a son gouvernement, reproduite 
dans le Bullclin de la SocicU gcograplnque (aout 1876), I'autre 
concernant TArmenie selon le recensenient fait ])ar le Patriarcat 
armenien en 1912 (voir I'annexe ci-jointe n 5). 

Faut-il encore rappeler que la Tlrece. lors de la proclamation 
de son independance. ne contenait (|ue 3(K) a 4(K).()()(I (irecs? 



* 



Mais, en dehors de ces constatations i'ondamentales, Texanien 
attentif de la situation ethnographiquearbitrairecreee par lesTurcs 
en Armenie demontre que I'element essentiel en Armenie est en- 
core^ aujourd'hui, en depit de massacres seculaires, le peuple ar- 
menien. 

Si nous consultons les statistiques dressees par le Patriarcat 
armenien de Constantinople, ainsi que d'autres documents arme- 
niens, nous constatons que le nombre de la p(.ipulati()n armenienne 
de toute la Turcpiie atteignait, a la veille de la guerre, un pen plus 
de2.0()().000,dont 1.4()3.()(l() habitaient I'Arme-nie ( voir annexe n°2). 

D'apres les statisti(pK's uflicielles russes au debut de la guerre, 
le nombre des Armeniens habitant dans toute la partie meridionale 
du Caucase atteignait 1.804. ()()(), dont 1.290.000 dans I'Armenie 
proprement dite (voir annexe n' 3). 

Si nous ajoutons a ces chilTres le nombre des Armeniens etablis 
dans d'autres pays, soit 823.000, nous obtenons le total general des 
Arm&niens avajt't la guerre, soit 4.470.000 (voir annexe n°4). 

De ce nom])re, environ 2.700.000 \i\aient dans la mere patrie 
et plus d'un million dans les environs immediats. 

Le nombre des Turcs cpii habitaient I'Armenie etait de 
1.005.000. 

Celui des 4'artares 537.000. 

Celui des Kurdes et des "rurkmenes nomades 555.00(J. 

Tous les musulmans reunis furmaient 2.308.000 

Or: 

1° Pris sei)arement, sur I'ensemble de la p(q>ulati()n. les .\rme- 
niens representaient en Armenie la majorite relative; 

2° Dans I'Armenie de "Furipiie consideree isolement, ils etaient 
un lieu moins nombreux (|ue tous les elements musulmans reunis; 

y lis etaient sensiblement snjjerieurs au total general de toute 

55 



la pupiilation imisulniane en prenant Ics territoires armcniens de la 
Turquie ct du Caucase reunis; 

4° Le nombre de tous les peuples chretiens formait 55% et les 
religions di verses 5%. 

* 

Le nombre des victinies que cctte guerre a faites parmi les 
Armeniens est effroyable; les pertes des autres peuples depassent 
rarement 10% ; les notres representent le quart du nombre total des 
Armeniens et presque la moitie des Armeniens habitant I'Armenie. 

"il n'y a plus de question armenienne ! Nous avons deja resolu 
cette question!" disait avec cynisme le ministre turc. 

"Armenie Independante ! Oui, ce serait bien, mais malheureu- 
sement il ne reste plus d'Armeniens !" repetent non sans hypocrisie 
nos adversaires. 

Accepter cet argument ce serait renier toute justice humaine; 
insulter les millions d'etres humains (pii se sont sacrifies pour la 
victoire du Droit; ce serait sanctionner les crimes des assassins et 
recompenser Tabominable projet turc d'extermination de toute 
une nation. 

D'ailleurs il n'est heureusement pas vrai (|ue les Armeniens 
soient extermines. Ouoique le nombre des victimes atteigne un 
million, quoiqu'une partie des survivants, (pii se sont enfuis ou ont 
ete deportes, ait succombe a la famine et aux epidemics et cpie ceux 
c|ui restent soient extenues par des luttes et des souffrances infinies, 
une partie de la nation survit et elle n'a C[u"un seul espoir, une seule 
volonte, c'est de rallumer le foyer eteint, de reconstruire la maison 
detruite, de se remettre au travail et cette fois pour elle-meme, dans 
la patrie liberee et independante. 

Du nombre de trois millions et demi que nous representons 
aujourd'hui un million et demi se trouvent sur notre sol natal; de- 
main ce nombre pent facilement atteindre deux millions et demi. 
Au Caucase, en Russie, a ConstantiiKiple, en Iiurope, en Kgypte, 
en Amerique, aux Balkans, partout, on attend avec impatience 
Theure du retour dans la mere palrie, et tous, tressaillant d'espoir, 
s'y preparent. 

Quant aux nuisulmans, leur nombre aussi a dimiiuie en Ar- 
menie, dans une jjrdjjortinn ])lus grande ([u'on ne le suppose ge- 
neralement. 

En ])remier lieu, les vilayets (jui etaienl le chaiup de Tinvasion 
des armees russes et de leur occupation, lels (|u'b2rzeroum, Trebi- 
zonde, \^an, Bitlis, sont aujourd'hui pour la plupart de veritables 
deserts, une grande ])artie de la p(q)ulation musulmane a succombe 
a la guerre, s'est enfuie ou a succombe aux epidemics. A la tin de 
I'annee 1917, dans les vilayets de A^an, Bitlis et Erzeroum, il y avait 
en tout 46.000 Turcs et 50.000 Kurdes environ. 

En second lien, dans les i)arties de nos territoires rpii consti- 
tuaient les arriere-f runts immediats de la guerre, tels ([ue les vi- 

56 



layets dc Sivas. Kliarpoul, Oiarbckir, relemcnt imisulniaii, d'apres 
les tcmoignages dcs officicrs allemands, a suhi dcs i>ertcs cnonncs 
par suite de revacuation, dv la famine et des epideniies de clTolera 
et de typhus. Par exeiiiple, la ville de Diarbekir (|ui, au debut de la 
guerre, avait une population de 55,()0() habitants d'oii, en autoinne 
1915, 22.()()() Armeniens ont ete deportes et immediatement rem- 
places par 3().(K)() emigres musulmans de la region de Bitlis, n'awiil, 
au mois de mai V>\7. (|ue ().()()() Iiabitants en tout. 

Ti-oisiemenient, la p]ui)art des musulmans qui y sont restes, 
des (jue notre independanee sera sanctionnee, ne voudront plus 
rester ehez nous; ils se retireront dans les territoires limitrophes, 
pour vivre sous un gouvernement ture, comme ee l"ut toujours le 
cas,_ lorscjue des nations chretiennes ont ete soustraites a la domi- 
nation turque. 

Knlin (piatriemement. apres entente enlre les < iouvernements 
Armeniens et Turcs. il sera ])ossible de faire des eehanges reguliers 
de populations. ( )n pent meme soumettre celte (piesticui a la Ligue 
des Nations et realiser eette mesure dans des eonditions e(piitab'les, 
car il en resultei-ait un bienfait pour tons, pour I'Arinenie comme 
pour la 'rur(iuie, et jiour la pai.v unixerselle. 

En resume, t^a/is les fronticres de l' Ariiicnie, il reste a pnuc la 
moilid t/e la population musulmaue qui cxistait avaiit la guerre, 
cest-a-dirc moius d'un million, composee probablement ainsi: un 
demi-nn'Ilion de Turcs, de Tcherkess et d'elemenls similaires 
30U.(KK) Tartares, 2()().(K)() Kurdes. 

De .sorte (jue, dans ses grandes lignes on jieul presenter le ta- 
bleau suiyant, ])our donner un ai)ercu de ce que sera la population 
de TArmenie dans les premiei-es annees de son e.xislence: 

Armeniens 2.500.000 din'-tiens 3.000.000 

Grecs. Nestoriens, KiLs,ses, .Ainsulnians i.ooo.ooo 

Georgiens, Europeens 500.000 .\utres rcli,i;i(>iis. . . 300.000 

Turcs, Circassiens, Arahes, 

Persans 500.000 4.300.000 

t artares 300.000 

Kurdes 200.000. . 

Kizilhaclies. ^'ezedis. Zazas, 



i'l-'ii^'iis 300.000 

4.300.000 

* 
* * 

Nous avons dit (|ue I'importance d'une popi Jalion se mesure 
non seulement a son nombre, mais aussi et surlout a ses ai)titudes 
economi(|ues et a son degre de culture. 

Les historiens les jdus anciens ont signale la \aleur des Ar- 
meniens qui, par leur esprit d'initialive, leur hardiesse et leurs 
entreprises de grande envergure, ont cherche. dej.uis les temps les 
plus_ recules, a developper le commerce et I'industrie dans toute 
I'Asie anterieure, et i)ar cela meme ont ete, avec les k'heniciens et 
les Grecs. les pionniers de la cixilisation en Orient. 

57 



Ce role, les Arnicnicns t)nt continue clc Ic joucr pendant tout 
le moyen-age, ainsi ()tie dans les temps niodernes. Nous ne sau- 
rions mieux faire (jue de citer le temoignage d'ttn observateur alle- 
mand, Paul Rohrbach, apotre du pangernianisme, qui ne saurait 
etre suspect de partialite (ju'en faveur des Turcs: 

"Dans la Ttircpiie d'aujotird'bui, reduite presque uniquement a 
ses possessions d'Asie, les Armeniens signifient beaucoup plus que 
ce que leur nombre a lui seul laisse entrevoir; ils sont, sans aucun 
doute, tant du point de vue intellectuel (|ue materiel, I'element le 
plus actif parmi tons les peuples orient aux; on pent meme dire 
qu'ils constituent, dans ce milieu, le seul peuple qui ait des qualites 
nationales innees. L'Armenien est dotie d'une energie et d'une te- 
nacite (|ui sont en contradiction avec tout ce (ju'on a couttime de 
considerer comme le caractere oriental." 

Pour donner une idee de I'activite economique de I'element 
armenien dans TArmenie Turque, nous presentons la statistique 
commerciale et industrielle du vilayet de Sivas, qtii est le moins 
armenien des six vilayets. On y verra cependant que toute I'activite 
commerciale et industrielle est presque exclusivement aux mains 
des Armeniens. 

Commerce: Importation: stir 166 negociants en gros, 141 sont 
armeniens, 13 turcs et 12 grecs. 

Exportation: sur 150 negociants. 127 sont armeniens et 23 
tttrcs. 

Sur i7 bancpiiers ou cajjitalistes, i2 sont armeniens et 5 seule- 
ment turcs. 

Sur 9.800 bouti(|uiers et artisans, 6.800 sont armeniens, 2.555 
settlement tttrcs et 150 de differentes nationalites. 

Industrie: sur 153 fabritjues, 130 appartiennent a des Arme- 
niens; le personnel tecbni([ue de toutes les fal)ri(iues est exclusive- 
ment compose d'Armeniens. Le nombre des ouvriers s'eleve a 
17.700, sur lesquels environ 14.000 Armeniens. 

II stiffit de mentionner ((tt'avant la guerre deux millions d'Ar- 
meniens avaient entre leurs mains la plus grande partie du com- 
merce de I'Empire ottoman qui comptait pltts de 20 millions d'habi- 
tants. Mais le commerce n'a jamais ete I'occupation principale des 
populations armeniennes; r immense niajorite de la nation (85 a 
90%) s' est voude de tout temps a t' agriculture et aux pctits mitiers 
soit en Turquie, soit an Caucase, soit en Perse; les Armeniens sont 
avant tout cttltivatcurs et artisans. 

"Dans le vilavet de \"an ils tiennent entre leurs mains, dit 
Robrbacb, les 98% du commerce, les 80% de I'agriculture. Les 
orfevres, gravettrs, fabricants de meubles. tailleurs, cordonniers, 
arcbitectes, cbari)entiers, niacons. forgerons sont totis armeniens. 
Ceux qui exercent les professions liberales, medecins, juristes, 
pharmaciens sont egalement armeniens. II en est de meme dans 
d'autres regions. 

"L'activite de I'element armenien apparait aussi sur le terrain 
de I'instruction populaire et de I'organisation scolaire. Les ecoles ar- 
meniennes sont nombreuses et meilleures qtte celles de toute autre 

58 



nationalitc en Tunjuie; ct, cc (|ui tloil ctrc particuliLTeniciU appre- 
cic, dies sont construitcs a\'ec les seulcs oltrandes volontaires, nun 
seulcnicnl de riches Armeniens, mais aiissi de Ijeaucoup de per- 
sonnes du peuple ct de pauvrcs cuiiiinunes. Dejii en 1903, Ton 
comptait en Turcpiic 81S ecdles armenienncs, avec plus de 82.000 
ecoliers et ecoliercs. Ces ecules sunt sous la dependance du Patriar- 
cat de Constantinople; a ce nom1)rc il faut ajouter les ecoles des 
Armeniens catholi(pics et protestants, ainsi ([ue les ecoles privees. 
Dans la seule Anuenie turque. c'est-a-dire dans les six vilayets et 
la Cilicie, il y a, sur le nombre indiipie ci-dessus, .">S5 ecoles arme- 
niennes, avec 52.000 eleves; par contre, dans la meine region, il n"y 
a (pie 150 ecoles turcjues et environ 17.000 eleves." 

La consequence de cet etat de choses et de I'activite intellec- 
tuelle generale et surtout de I'assiduite au travail des Armeniens 
est le nombre relativement eleve des employes armeniens dans I'ad- 
ministration tur(|ue. Ces employes sont si nombreux et la somme 
de travail (|ui leur incombe est si grande, (]ue, sans eu.x, la machine 
de TEtat serail absoluiuent arretee. 

Nous trouvons des renseignements analogues dans les livres 
de presque tons les voyageurs eurojjeens et americains (pii ont se- 
journe avant la guerre en Tiu"(|uie et en Armenie. 

La proportion des ecoles et des eleves, ainsi cpie celle des pro- 
fesseurs, est encore plus importante dans la jiartie russe de I'Ar- 
menie. Le nombre des etudiants Armeniens dans les Universites 
russes, europeennes et americaines depasse 15.000. 

Les Armeniens se sont dislingues aussi bien en 1 urcfuie cpt'en 
Russie et en Perse par leurs (jualites administratives, diploniati- 
ques et militaires. lis ont donne de nombreux generaux a I'armee 
russe, de grands administrateurs a la Tur(piie, a la llongrie, un 
grand nombre de dii)lomates a la lunpiie. a la Perse et a d'autres 
pays. 

Les Anueniens se sont distingues, surtout |)endant les der- 
niers cin(|uante ans, dans toutes les branches de I'activite intellec- 
tuelle, litterature, science, art, etc. 

11 est temps, enfm, (|ue les Armeniens aient I'occasion de met- 
tre leurs aptitudes au service de leur propre pays. 

Le peuple armenien est essentiellement democrati(pie ; de tout 
temps il a gere ses institutions par des organismes electifs. La 
hierarchic ecclesiastique n'y fait pas exception, et le chef supreme 
de TEglise est lui-meme elu ])ar toute la nation. 

Notre Patrie a toujours ete le jjoint de separation des deu.x 
mondes, des deux civilisations orientale et occidentale. C'est pre- 
cisement pour cette raisim que les grands chocs de r( )rient et de 
rOccident se sont produits sur ses luontagnes ou autour d'elles et 
c'est aussi pour cette raison (pie les grandes puissances d'Orient et 
d'Occident ont attache tant d'importance a la domination de ces 
regions. lis se les ont arrachees et elles sont passees de main en 
main apres des guerres innombrables; elles ont toujours ete pie- 
tinees, ruinees, et c'est toujours le peujjle originaire armenien qui 
les a baties et rebaties, construitcs et reconstruites, et qui n'a pas 
permis ((u'une grande puissance s'y etablit d'une fac:on permanent e. 

59 



Tontc riiistciire de rArmcnie est une luttc inccssante, ol')stinc'e 
et inegalc pour drfencirc son indixidualitc, sa culture et sa religion 
contre des races et dcs enneiuis puissants qui I'attaciuaient de tous 
cotes. Elle a aussi souiiert pendant des siecles ])our conserver sa 
foi chretienne contre les envahisseurs musulmans. Elle a arrete 
niomentanement toutes les invasions des hordes de I'Asie Centrale. 
Cfui se deversaient vers I'Europe et ont fini par engloutir I'Empire 
de Byzance. 

Durant des siecles elle a tour a tour reussi soit a maintenir et 
a former des royaumes, soit, tomljee sous le joug de ses envahis- 
seurs, a se relever et a reconquerir son independance. tantot dans 
une partie de son patrimoine, tantot dans une autre, suivant la 
pression des circonstances. Mais sous la domination de ses rois na- 
tionaux, comme sous le jougde I'etranger, le proprietaire originaire 
de ces montagnes, le travailleur, le producteur a toujours ete I'Ar- 
menien, qui a arrose le sol natal de son sang et de ses sueurs, et 
dont la perseverante tenacite, en depit de tous les obstacles, a fonde 
une civilisation qui lui est propre, et qui est la resultante du me- 
lange des deux civilisations occidentale et orientale. 

Tout le haut plateau armenien, depuis Adana et Sis jusqu'a 
Van et Erivan, est jonche de ruines de villes, de forteresses, d'e- 
glises, de convents, cie ponts, de monuments, qui temoignent de son 
incessant travail civilisateur. Une litterature de grande valeur his- 
torique, philosophique et poetique des le I\^''siecle, une langueriche 
et souple et une eglise chretienne d'un caractere national sont le 
noble heritage (pie cet infatigable travail intellectuel nous a legue. 

Le malheur du peuple armenien est que. par suite de la tyran- 
nic turque durant ce dernier quart de siecle, les peuples civilises 
d'Occidcnt ne voient en lui qu'un peuple chretien persecute C|ui 
inspire la pitie et a besoin de secours. Ce nest pas la piiic, cest le 
respect qui est du a un peiiple amour eux de travail, de libtrle, qui a 
taut sonfjert et qui a si bien resists. Malheureusement I'histoire 
armenienne est trop peu connue en Occident ou Ton ignore le role 
que les Armeniens ont joue soit dans leur propre histoire, soit dans 
celle des peuples qui les ont subjugues. Moins connues encore sont 
leurs oeuvres litteraires et artisticpies. ([ui refletent pourtant les 
meilleurs aspects de notre ame et que le peuple armenien pent met- 
tre avec fierte a cote de cedes des autres nations civilisees. 

Le peuple, qui depuis 3(1 siecles, bien avant (|ue Xenophon en 
eut parle, a vecu jusqu'a nos jours sur ces hauts plateaux, c'est le 
peuple armenien; le peuple (jui a joue le role que Thistoire et la geo- 
graphic lui ont assigne, (\\x\ a consigne dans ses fastes ce qu'il a fait 
et affirme son droit sur ces territoires, (pii, apres chacpie devasta- 
tion a bati et rebati, cpii a pense et cpti a produit, c'est toujours le 
peuple armenien. Tous les autres elements onl etc ou tout a fait 
secondaires ])ar leur nombre et leur imi)ortance, ou ajjpartiennent 
a des races a demi barljares, qui n'ont ni art, ni litterature, ni his- 
toire, et qui dans le cours de leur existence, n'ont rien fait pour la 
civilisation. Quant aux conquerants turcs, ipii se sont nourris de 
notrc sang, de notre cerveau et de notre sueur. sans rien crcer eux- 
memes, lis ne sont que les continuateurs de ces hordes qui. depuis 

60 



les temps des Assyriens. ont coiKiuis el ravage notre pays, et i|Ui 
ont ensuite disparu de la scene de I'histoire en laissanl le haul i)la- 
teau arnienieii a smi ]>r(iprielaire originaire, le peuple armenien. 

:|: * * 

La Republique Armenienne Du Caucase 



Les regions septentrionales de noire patrie (|ui, d'une lacon 
generate, eonsliuienl le hassin du tleuve Araxe et (lu'au cours du 
XIX'' siecle le Guuvernenienl russe avail arrachees. morceaux i>ai- 
morceaux aux Persans el aux Turcs, represenlent de menie une 
partie essenlielle et indivisible du haul plateau armenien; Ararat, 
Koukark, Ardzakh et Siounik, eonnus depuis ranti(|uite, sont les 
quatre principales provinces de TArmenie. C'esl la (|ue se Irou- 
vaient nos capilales et la pluparl de nos autres villes celebres, 
comme Ardachad, X'agharcliahed, \ervantaguerd, Dvin, Nakliit- 
chevan, Kars et Ani. 

C'est la (|ue se trouvait an moyen age notre royaume des Ba- 
gratides, dont la capitale Ani, avec ses ruines encore debout, est le 
meilleur temoignage du haul dcgre ([u'avaient atteint I'industrie, 
la civilisation el I'arl armeniens. La principaule de Lory a dure 
jus(|u'au commencement du X\'' siecle. A Kara-Bagh, I'ancienne 
independance armenienne a continue jus(|u';i I'arrivee des Russes; 
ce sont les nieliks (princes) de Khamsa ([ui ont ete les principaux 
instigateurs de I'entree des Russes au Caucase: ils esperaienl cpi'a- 
vec I'aide des Russes chreliens les Armeniens seraient delivres du 
joug musulman, el ils coiuplaient sur la parole des Tzars (|ui leur 
promettaient la reconstruction du gouvernement independant ar- 
menien sur les territoires occupes. Jus(|u'a ce jour encore c'est la, 
a Etchimiadzine, ([ue se trouve le siege du Catholicos, Chef spiri- 
tuel de tons les Armeniens, fonde au 111' siecle, des la conversion de 
I'Armenie au christianisme. L'elemenl le plus im])ortant de la po- 
pulalinn de ces provinces, par le nombre el par la situation <|u'il y 
occupe, est TArmenien (voir annexe n 3). 

Puis done qu'un des huts de la guerre et de la paix est le droit 
des peuples opprimes a disposer d'eux-memes, et ([ue ce principe a 
ete accepte par les diti'erents (k)uvernements russes qui se sont 
succedes; puisque, par TeiTondremenl de la Turciuie, la plus grande 
partie de I'Armenie a ete liberee, il n'esl ])lus possible d'abandonner 
a la Russie une partie im])()rlante de TArmenie pour le seul motif 
<|ue ces provinces se trouvaient sous la domination russe dei)uis 
(|uel(|ues decades: d'autant i)lus (|ue, dei)uis la I'm de V>\7. tout le 
Caucase a ete ])rali(iuement et reellement separe de la Russie pour 
former une l\e])ubli(|ue Caucasienne. Celle-ci ])eu apres s'est divi- 
see en trois parlies, sur la base du droit des nalionaliles. l<^n mai 
1''1S. rAssemblee nationale armenienne a proclame, au nom des 
deux millions d'Armeniens de Russie, la constitution de I'Armenie 
russe en Republi(iue independante, avec Krivan comme capitale. 
Un Gouvernement regulier y a ete organise, ainsi (|u'une armee, qui 
s'est efforcee d'arreter, i)ar tons les moyens, I'avance de I'armee 
lur(|ue vers Kars, ajires la defecli(.in des armees russes (|ui s'etaient 

61 



dispersees, en laissant Ics Armeniens tout seals en face de leurs 
ennemis seculaires. 

En abandonnant les Armeniens a leur sort, malgre toutes leurs 
supplications, en leur leguant a eux seuls une guerre qu'il etait 
au-ciessus de leurs forces de mener, en livrant a la Turcjuie par le 
traite de Brest-Litovsk, — (et sans meme nous consulter) — les 
provinces armeniennes du Caucase, de Kars, Ardahan et Kaghis- 
ma, causant ainsi la ruine de centaines de milliers d'Armeniens, la 
Russie a, par ces faits niemes, ronipu a jamais tous lient existant 
entre elle et TArnienie. 

D'ailleurs, apres la creation de la Pologne unifiee, I'occupation 
de la Bessarabie par les Roumains, I'independance complete de la 
Finlande, la formation d'un Etat Ukrainien et d'autres encore, I'ar- 
gument de I'integrite de I'Empire russe ne peut plus etre invoque. 

Ce serait done un deni de justice que de separer les anciens 
territoires de I'Armenie turque de ceux de TArmenie russe, sous 
quelque pretexte ou sous quelque forme que ce soit; ce serait pour 
ainsi dire depecer un corps vivant et ce serait ainsi creer une cause 
permanente de nouvelles persecutions, de nouvelles oppressions et 
de nouvelles effusions de sang. 

Un grand nombre des Armeniens du Caucase etaient, eux ou 
leurs peres, des sujets du Sultan jus(|u"aux massacres de 1894-96; 
ils se sont refugies a cette epoque en territoire russe. D'autre part, 
les Armeniens du Caucase n'ayant pas souffert des recents mas- 
sacres au meme degre (|ue leurs freres de Turtpiie, pourront fournir 
a I'Armenie les elements (jui lui man(jueraient, au debut, pour creer 
une administration et provo(iuer I'essor economi(|ue. Les separer 
de leurs freres de Turcjuie serait condamner ceux-ci a vegeter et 
rendre plus lourde la charge de la Puissance qui aura la mission 
temporaire d'aider I'Armenie a se reconstituer. Comnujit d'ailleurs 
les Puissances pourraient-elles sopposer c) tin fait d'ores et dcja 
accompli en conformitii parfaite avec les principes sur lesquels va 
i'tre concln le Traite' de Paix ? 

Les Armeniens de Russie ont sacrifie, pendant toute la moitie 
du dernier siecle, le meilleur de leurs forces physiques et morales 
pour la cause de I'Armenie de Turquie, parce qu'ils comprenaient 
que le chemin de leur delivrance passait par la Turiiuie. Des gene- 
rations entieres ont vecu dans le reve de liberer I'Armenie turque. 
Et c'est justement pour cette raison que les Armeniens de Russie, 
des la declaration de cette guerre, se sont enroles avec enthou- 
siasme sous les drapeaux russe, franqais et anglais et, s'unissant 
aux Armeniens de Turquie, ont forme des corps de volontaires, 
prouvant ainsi qu'une frontiere artiiicielle, tracee par des Gouver- 
nements etrangers, etait impuissante a sei)arer un tout indivisible, 
lie par le sang, par I'esprit, par la langue, par le i)asse, par le pre- 
sent, par I'avenir et par tant d'interets communs. 

Au nom de la justice, au nom de notre droit seculaire, au nom 
des aspirations irresistibles des deux communautes armeniennes 
de Russie et de Turquie, au nom de I'ineluctable necessite histo- 
rique qui, tot ou tard, doit triompher, nous reclamons la reunion 
absolue et definitive de ces deux trongons de la meme nation. 

62 



A MemoranduTn 

Presented by the 
President of the Delegation of the Armenian Republic 

to the 
President of the Peace Conference 



A memorandum 

Presented by the 
President of the Delegation of the Armenian Republic 

to the 
President of the Peace Conference.* 

To the President of tlic Priifc Confcycnrc, 

Mr. Pii-slJcnt: 

THl- Kcpiihlic of Arnicnia (in the Caucusus), Ixirn durin,*;- the 
storm of the War, and its I'arlianient, have entrusted to me, as 
head of the Delegation to the Peace Conference, and to my two 
colleagues. Dr. Ohachanian and Mr. Papadjanian, the duty of 
suhmitting to you the following facts: 

Since the very iirst days of the War. the Armenians through- 
out the world entered the field resolutely on the side of the Powers 
of the h'ntente. They fought on the \\"estern front as well as on 
the Eastern front, 'i'hev contrihuted to the Russian .\rmy from 
150,000 to 200,000 men. 'i'housands of .Xrmenians \ohmteered in 
the Caucasus, where they did their full duty, and they also fought 
in I'alestine and in Syria. 

The world k'uows today that in coiisei|uence of our s\'mi)athv 
for the cause of tlie .\llies, — a sym])athy which manifested itself 
so elo(|uently hy our active and effective militarv i)artici])ation in 
!he War on all the fronts, — the Cio\erninent of the ^'oung Turks, 
as a measure of ruthless vengeance, ravaged the Turkish .\rmenia 
through massacres unexampled in history, hy mass dei)ortations 
of the .Xrmenian po])ulation, drixing them to the deserts of Meso- 
potamia and S\ ria, where they met a death equally horrihle. 

(_)ne million Armenians have thus heen destroyed. 

The suffering of Armenia is sufticientlv well known to the 



"On February 26. IQIQ, the President of the .Armenian National Dek-.tja- 
tion ami the President of the Delegation of the Armenian Repuldic appeared 
hefi-re the Peace Conference and presented tn that Pxidy a joint memnrandnni 
in the name of the .Armenian Nation, of which English translation and French 
ori,t.dnal are printed in the first part of thi> book. Air. Aharonian, as President of 
the Delegation of the .Armenian Rerniblic. handed tn the President of the Peace 
Conference this meniorandnm, which summarizes the series of e\ents in 
.Northern .Armenia which culminated in the esta1)lishment of the Uepnblic ot 
.Armenia. The Freiicli original of this memorandum is printed in the following 
pages. — Translator's note. 

65 



world. But that which is very hi tic knmvn is the part that the 
Caucasian Armenia has taken in the World War. It is very little 
known that, following- the hreak-down of the Russian Caucasvts 
Army, which, having been infected with the demoralizing virus of 
Bolshevism, wholly abandoned the front, the Caucasus Armenians, 
with exemplary heroism and abnegation, without any help what- 
soever from any source, with their own forces, fought the common 
enemy. 

The infamous treaty of Brest-Litovsk immediately followed 
this shameful desertion by the Russians of the Armenian front. 
This treaty not only left to the Turks the provinces of Turkish 
Armenia, whicli had been conquered by the Russian Armies with 
the most effective aid of the Armenians, but it even turned over to 
the Turks the jjurely Armenian jjrovinces of the Caucasus of Ivars 
and Kaghisnian, and B;itum and Ardahan. 

I'rom this moment on the Armenian National Council, chosen 
liy the Great National Congress in September, 1917, and presided 
over by me, rejected thj Brest-Litovsk Treaty and took upon itself 
the task of carrying on a war started by the Russians, who now 
had al)andoned the entire front. Unfortunately, the Armenian 
soldiers, who were in the ranks of the Russian Armies on the 
Austro-German fronts could not hasten to the aid of their mother 
country. The vascillation of the Kerensky Government, which did 
not have the vision to grasp the vital importance of the Caucasian 
front, and later, the general chaos which set in throughout Russia 
in consecjuencc of Bolshevism, made the return of these Armenian 
soldiers to the Caucasus impossilile. 

Therefore, the Armenian National Council found itself in the 
necessity of raising a purel\- Armenian Army for the defence of 
the mother country and the cause of the Allies. 

As President of the Armenian National Council, I received 
from Paris at this time, through the agency of the Minister of 
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of France, a dispatch in cipher 
from His Excellency Boghos Nubar Pasha, President of the Ar- 
menian National Delegation, by which His Excellency counselled 
the Armenians to hold firm, to reorganize the defence of the front 
and to oppose the advance of the Turks. 

In the name of the National Council, I replied His Excellency, 
through the agency of the French Consulate at Tiflis: 

1. Thdt the .IriucuKin Nation was ready to Jo its supreme 
'litt\ now as it had done sinee the he</innnu/ of the JJar; 

2. That it counted upon the materia/, moral, and. if possil^/e, 
the military aid of the Allies: ■ 

3. That through the disclosure made b\ the Bolsheviki of the 
secret treaty of igi6 between France, Great Britain and Russia, by 
and under which Turkish .Irnienia was to he partitioned between 
France and Russia, the Armenians had been deeply depressed and 
discouraf/ed , and that, therefore, m order to stimulate their power of 
resistance and to encourar/e fliem to ijo on with the desperate and 
unequal battle, it was imperative, 

66 



a. To annul said treaty so far as it concerned 

Armenia; 

b. To proclaim the independence of Armenia. 

In response to tills dispatch, I received a second c<iniinunica- 
tion from His Excellency I^og-hos Nuhar Pasha, ag-ain tliroii.L^h the 
agency of the I'rench Consulate, in \\hich the i>roniises of aid and 
co-operation were renewed. As to the independence of Armenia, 
in the meanint;" of my message to him, it was stated that the solemn 
declarations made in the British House of Commons and in the 
French Chamber of l)ei)Uties were of a nature to satisfy the Arme- 
nian national demands.* 

The texts of the declarations referred to by His Excellency 
were unkncnvn to ns, but the words of encouragement that his 
message cont;uned insi)ired us and filled us with hope at this most 
tragic liour, and the Armenian Nation rallied about its National 
Council and Hung itself once more whole-heartedly into the strug- 
gle against the Turks. 

A levee en masse of all the Armenians was then de- 
creed by the National Council, and an army of 50,000 men 
was organized during the last months of 1917. This result 
was achieved in spite of the numberless difficulties created 
by the marked antagonism which was shown towards us 
and the Allies by the divers populations of the Caucasus, 
our neighbors, who did their best to prevent us from 
raising an army which was to fight on the side of the 
Powers of the Entente. 

The Tartars and Kmxls openly ranged themselves on the side 
of Turkey, and in order to serve the cause of tlieir ally better, tliey 
mobilized in our rear, and did all tliat lay within llieir power 
to hinder out efforts for the national defense. 

The Georgians, to whom we had l)een Ixnmd in the past by 
common faith and by common suffering, and u])on whom we had 
the right to coimt, deserted us at this most tragic moment, refused 
to march with us and left us alone to meet the enemy. 

Far (Vicdx from our </rc<if JVcsicrn .llhcs, ditil not luivnuj 
received the aid that liad been promised us, alone, isolated, and 
surrounded on all sides by hostile neighbors, ice, nevertheless, hurled 
ourselves into the supreme eomhat, with the purpose, it not of van- 



*Mr. Lloyd George, on January 5, 1918, solemnly declared in the House 
of Commons that the rccofjnition of the separate c(>n(h'tiiin of Armenia shall 
constitute one of the war aims of Great Britain. 

Mr. Balfour, replying' t" an interiiellation hv ?\)r. Ramsay MacDonald in 
the House of Commons on July 11, h^l8, said: "His !\lajesty's Government is 
following with earnest sympatlu- and admiration the gallant resistance of the 
Armenians (in the Caucasus) in defence of their liberties and honor. I wouhl 
refer the Honorable Member to the public statements ma<le bv leading states- 
men among the .Mlied Powers in favor of a settlement (of the Armenian 
Case) upon the principle of self-determination." — Translator's note. 

67 



rjiiishiiK/ the ciiiDix, lit Iciist >)j hiiiilcniui his /iilrdiicc into the 
interior o/ the Cldiirasiis ; and this wc dui, believing implicitly as 
ever in the iiltniuite triiinipii of the rii/hfeoiis cause to ^chicli ice had 
dedirtited till that we were (ind till tliiit -we had from the very 
hetjtnnint/. 

(icncral Nazarbekian, whose military talents had been very 
liij^iily appreciated during' his service in the Russian Army, was 
named Commander-in-Chief of the Armenian forces, and the 
famous Chief, Andranil^, was i)laced at the head of a division C(nn- 
posed of Armenian \dlunteers from Turkey. It was this young 
army which went onward ])ravely against the Turks to defend the 
front abandoned by the Russians, which extended from Erzindjian 
to tlie Persian frontier. — o^'er 250 miles long. 

The unequal struggle against the Turkish Army, which was 
greatly superior in numbers, lasted seven months, until June, 1918. 
15eginning with \'an and Krzindjian. the most des]X'rate and bloody 
battles took place betw^een these two ancient enemies. Erzerum, 
vSarikamisch, the fortress of Kars, Alexandropol, Sarderabad. 
Karakilisa became the scenes of terrible encounters, in the course 
(if which the Turks suffered very heavy losses. It was this heroic 
resistance of the Armenians which not only prevented the Turks 
from advancing' into the interior of the Caucasus immediately after 
the abandonment of the front by the Russians, but it also made it 
impossil)le for the Turks, during these seven months, to concen- 
trate their forces against the I'ritish in Mesopotamia, and which, 
drawing' against itself divisions from the Turkish Army in Syria, 
also contributed greatly to the victory of General AUenliy on that 
front. 

In the meantime, with the arrival of the German troops in the 
Caucasus, Georgia iiroclaimed her inde])endence under the military 
jtrotection of Germany. Tataristan, with the aid and sujiport of 
the Turkish .Xrniy, also proclaimed her inde])endence and assunied 
the title of Aderbaidjian. The Caiicasian unity being thus lirought 
to an end, the .Armenian National Council likewise ])roclaimed the 
indej^endence of Armenia on INlay 28, 1918, which is now known as 
the Republic of Armenia. 

The g"overnment of the Republic has been normally function- 
ing now for abont a year. Law and order prevail within its bor- 
ders, and it has found itself forced, on several occasions, to repulse 
successfully Georg'ian and Tartar aggressions without. The Re- 
public has an area of 60,000 square kilometers, a population of 
2,000.000, and a well-disciplined army of 40,000, which is absolutely 
free from the taint of Bolshevism. 

It is this Republic, whose Government and rarliament sit in 
its capital, at Erivan, which has deleg'ated us as its representatives 
to the Peace Conference, and has charg'ed us to subniit to it the 
following": 

1. Russia, in abandoning the Armenians to their lot, 
in spite of their prayers, in bequeathing to them a war 

68 



which it was manifestly beyond their power to carry on ; 
in handing over to Turkey by the Treaty of Brest- 
Litovsk, without even consulting them, the Armenian 
provinces of the Caucasus, Kars, Ardahan and Kaghis- 
man, thereby causing incalculable injury to hundreds of 
thousands of Armenians, has, by these very acts and of 
her own free will, broken forever all ties existing between 
Russia and Armenia. 

2. The Republic of Armenia, accordingly, believes 
itself justified in demanding the immediate recognition 
of its independence, which has been merited and won 
upon the field of battle, and which the success of its arms 
has obliged even its enemies to recognize. 

3. Taking into consideration this War, which Ar- 
menia has waged all alone for the defence of the Cause 
of the Allies and the superhuman sacrifices which all the 
Armenians have made, I have now the honor to claim, in 
the name of the Armenian Nation, the place which Ar- 
menia has justly merited at the Peace Conference, beside 
Emir Faizal and the representatives of the Czecho- 
slovaks, Poles and Serbs. 

4. The Delegation of the Armenian Republic sub- 
mits that it acts in all its demands and proceedings in 
perfect accord with the Armenian Delegation from Tur- 
key, presided over at Paris by His Excellency Boghos 
Nubar Pasha. 

Accept, Mr. President, (he assurance of my nmst distin,^-nis'ned 
consideratiim. 

AA'ETIS AIIAI>:nXIAX, 

President, Dclcijatinn of the .tniiciiiaii Ki'piihlic 
til the Peoee i'oiifereiiee. 

Paris, February 12. 1919. 




69 



Paris. Ic 12 I'evrier 1919. 
A Monsieur le President de la Conference de la Paix.* 

Monsieur It' Presit/cnt, 

La Republique de TArmenie (au Caucase), nee pendant la 
tourmente de la guerre, ainsi que son Parlement, nous ont confie 
la tachCj a moi, coninie chef de la Delegation a la Conference de la 
Paix et a mes deux collegues, Monsieur le Docteur (Jhachanian et 
Monsieur Pajjadjanian d'expt)ser les faits suivants: 

Tout le peuple Armenien, (|uel (|ue soil le pays dans lequel il 
se trou\ait au del)ut de la guerre et dejjuis les premiers jours, s'est 
resolument engage dans la lutte prenant le i)arti de I'Entente, 
coniljattant sur le front occidental aussi bien (jue sur le front orien- 
tal, combattant aux cotes des troupes russes auxciuelles il a fourni 
un contingent de 13(),(K)() a 2(X),(K)() hommes, luttant au Caucase ou 
des milliers de volontaires ont fait leur de\oir, luttant de meme 
en Palestine et en Syrie. 

L'Univers entier sait ((ue, en conseipience de cette synipathie 
pour la cause des Allies, synii)atliie (|ui se manifestait si clairement 
par la part active et efficace que les Arnieniens prenaient aux ope- 
rations militaires sur tons les fronts, sur les ordres du (jouverne- 
ment Jeune-Turc, cpii ne cherchait <pi'a se venger, I'Armenie 
Turque fut devastee par des massacres sans exemple dans This- 
toire, par des deportations en masse de toute la poiiulation arme- 
nienne, qui fut jetee vers la Mesopotamie ou elle trouva egalement 
une mort atroce. 

Plus d'un million d'Armeniens furent ainsi aneantis. 

Ces faits sont universellement connus, c'est vrai, mais ce (|ui 
ne Test pas assez, c'est la part que I'Armenie du Caucase a prise 
a la guerre mondiale, c'est I'heroi'sme et I'abnegation avec les- 
quelles cette Armenie a lutte toute seule, sans etre secourue ou 
aidee par qui que ce soit, avec ses proi)res forces, contre les Turcs, 
depuis le moment ou, par suite de I'effondrement de la Russie, les 
troupes russes, gagnees ])ar la vague bolchevique, abandonnaient 
entierement le front du Caucase. 

Le honteux Traite de Brest-Litovsk suivit immediatemcnt cet 
abandon. Ce traite, non seulement laissait aux Turcs les provinces 

* C'est I'original du Memorial soumis par la Delegation de la Republique de 
I'Armenie (au Caucase) a la Conference de la Paix. La traduction anglaise le 
precede dans ce livre. Le Memorial de tnute la Nation Armenienne se trouve dans 
les premieres pages de ce livre. 

71 



de rArnicnie 'l"ur(|Ue (|ui avaient a un moment etc ct)n(|ui.ses par 
les armees russes avec I'aide tres efficace des Armcniens, mais 
encore on leur donnait, en meme temps (|ne les provinces dii Cau- 
case de Kars et Kaghisman ])iirement armeniennes, Batoum et 
Ardahan. 

A partir de ce moment, le Conseil National Armenien, elu par 
le Grand Congres National de septembre 1917, et preside par moi, 
repousse le Traite de Brest-Litovsk et reprend tout seul cette 
guerre commencee par les Russes, qui devaient ensuite abandonner 
le front. Les soldats armeniens cjui se trouvaient sur le front occi- 
dental parmi les troupes russes ne pouvaient accourir au secours de 
leur Mere Patrie. D'une j>art les hesitations du Gouvernement de 
Kerensky, qui n'eut pas la clairvoyance de saisir I'importance 
reelle du front du Caucase, et plus tard, la desorganisation generale 
de la Russie, en consequence du bolchevisme, rendaient leur retour 
au Caucase impossible. 

Force fut au Conseil National d'organiser une nouvelle Armee 
purement Armenienne, pour la defense de la Mere Patrie et pour 
celle de la cause des Allies. 

Comme President du Conseil National Armenien, je recus 
alors de Paris, par I'intermediaire du ministere des Affaires Etran- 
geres, une depeche chiffree du President de la Delegation Natio- 
nale des Armeniens de Turquie, Son ILxcellence Boghos Nubar 
Pacha, exhortant les Armeniens a tenir bon, a organiser la defense 
et a resister contre I'avance turque. 

Au nom du Conseil National, je repondis par Tintermediaire 
du Consulat de France a Tiflis: 

1. Que la Nation Armenienne etait prete a faire son devoir 
supreme oomme elle I'avait fait depuis le debut de la guerre; 

2. Ou'elle comptait sur le concours materiel, moral et si pos- 
sible militaire des Allies; 

3. Mais que les Armeniens ayant eu connaissance par la divul- 
gation qu'en avaient fait les bolcheviques, du traite secret passe au 
commencement de 1916 entre la France, I'Angleterre et la Russie 
et par lec^uel I'Armenie Turque devait etre partagee entre la France 
et la Russie, cela avait eu pour consequence une depression gene- 
rale jointe par un decouragement comprehensible, et qu'il m'etait 
urgent, pour stimuler leur resistance et les encourager a continuer 
la lutte acharnee: 

a. D'annuler ce traite en ce qui concerne I'Armenie, 

b. De declarer I'lndependance de I'Armenie. 

En reponse a cette depeche, je regus une seconde communica- 
tion de Son Excellence Boghos Nubar Pacha, toujours par Tinter- 
mediaire du Consulat de France, par laquclle les promesses d'aide 
et de concours nous etaient renouvelees. Pour ce qui concernait 
I'lndependance de I'Armenie, il nous etait dit que les declarations 
faites a la Chambre des Communes anglaise et a la Chambre des 
Deputes francaise, sont de nature a satisfaire les revendications 
armeniennes. 

Bien que les textes de ces declarations ne nous fussent pas 

12 



ctinnus, lortc dc ccs encmirage'inents (|ui nous claicnt doiincs, 
pleine d'espoir en Tavenir (|ui. nienie a ccl instant tragique lui pa- 
rait soiiriant, la Nation Armcnienne sc rallia autour de son Conseil 
National pour se lancer encore une fois dans la lutte centre les 
Turcs. 

Une levee en masse de tons les Armeniens fut decretee par le 
Conseil National el une arniee de 5(1,(KK) hommes fut organisee 
durant les derniers niois de I'annee I'M 7; et cela malgre les diffi- 
cujtes sans nomhre creees ]iar I'antagonisnie tres niar(|ue dont fai- 
saient preuve a notre egard et a I'egard de I'Ententc les diverses 
populations du Caucase, nos voisines, (pii s'appliquaient de leur 
• mieux a nous empecher de constituer cette armee la(pielle de\ait 
se battre ])our I'l^ntente. 

Les Tartares ainsi (pie les Kurdes se rangerent ouverteiuent 
du cote de la Tur(|uie, et, i>our mieux servir la cause de leur Alliee, 
ils s'organisereni a noire arriere, faisant tout ce qui etait en leur 
pouvoir pour entra\er nos efTorts de defense nationale. 

Les deorgiens, auxquels nous avions ete lies dans le passe par 
la religK)n et les sou (Trances communes et sur lesquels nous avions 
droit de compter, nous ahandonnerent au moment le ])lus tragique, 
se refusant de marcher avec nous et nous laissant seuls devant 
I'ennemi. 

Loin des Allies et sans a\-oir recu le concours (pii nous avait 
ete promis, seuls, abandonnes et meme traques par nos voisins, 
nous nous sommes quand meme lances dans cette lutte supreme! 
avec but sinon de vaincre, du nioins d'entraver la marche des Turcs 
vers I'lnterieur du Caucase, et cela en attendant la grande victoire 
des Allies, victoire sur laquelle nous n'avons jamais eu le moin- 
dre doute. 

Le (Jeneral Nazarbekian, donl la valeur militaire a ete haute- 
ment appreciee lors de son ser\ice dans I'armee russe, fut nomme 
comnKindant en chef, et le fameux chef Andranik fut plac6 a la 
tete d'une division composee d'Armeniens de Turquie. Ce fut cette 
jeune armee qui avanca vaillamment contre les Turcs sur le front 
abandonne par les Russes, tenant le front depuis Lrzindjian jus- 
qu'a la frontiere persane. 

La lutte inegale contre I'armee tur(pie, de beaucoup superieure 
en nombre, a dure' sei>t mois, et a ])artir d'Lrzindiian et de Van, les 
batailles les plus acharnees et les plus sanglanles furent livrees 
entre ces deux ennemies se-culaires, batailles durant les(|uelles Er- 
zeroum, Sarikamich, la forteresse de Kars, Alexandropol .Sarde- 
ral)ad, Karakilise, furent le theatre des plus terribles rencontres au 
cours desquelles les l^ircs eurent a subir les plus lourdes pertes. 
Ce flit cette resistance heroi'cpie des Armeniens qui, non seulement 
empecha les Turcs d'avancer dans I'interieur du Caucase, aussitot 
apres I'abandon du front ])ar les Russes, mais encore immobilisant 
leur grosse armee, empecha durant sept mois aussi leur descente 
versla Mesopotamie cnntre les Anglais, attirant par sa defensive 
opiniatre une grande partie des forces de I'armee turque de Syrie, 
facilitant ainsi la victoire des armees du General Allenby. 

73 



Entre temps, Ics troupes allemandes arrivant au Caucase, la 
Georgie se declare independante sous la protection niilitaire de 
rAUemagne. La Tartaric, avec I'aide et I'appui de I'armee turc^ue, 
se declare egalemcnt independante, prenant le nom d'Aderbaidjian, 
et rUnite Caucasienne ainsi brisee, le Conseil National Armenien 
proclame aussi de son cote I'lndependance de I'Armenie. 

Cette Republique fonctionne regulierement depuis bientot une 
annee, repoussant les agressions tartares et georgiennes a I'exte- 
rieur, reorganisant a I'interieur son armee reguliere et disciplinee 
de pres de 40,000 baionnettes, exempte de ])olchevisme ou de tout 
autre courant desorganisateur, et, par une energie incessante, fai- 
sant regner un ordre parfait dans son territoire de 60,000 kilo- 
metres Carres. 

C'est cette RepulMiciue Armenienne, dont le Gouvernement et 
le Parlement siegent dans sa Capitale a Erivan, cjui nous a dele- 
gues comme ses representants a la Conference de la Paix, nous 
chargeant de porter a sa connaissance ce qui suit: 

1. La Russie, en abandonnant les Armeniens a leur sort, mal- 
gre toutes leurs sup])lications, en leur leguant a eux seuls une 
guerre qu'il etait au-dessus de leurs forces a mener, en livrant par 
le Traite de Brest-Litovsk a la Turquie, et cela sans meme nous 
consulter, les provinces Armeniennes du Caucase, de Kars, Arda- 
han, et Kaghisman, causant ainsi la ruine de centaines de milliers 
d'Armeniens, a, par ces faits memes, rompu a jamais tons liens 
existant entre I'Armenie et la Russie. 

La Republique Armenienne se croit done en droit de demander 
la reconnaissance immediate de son Independance qui a ete meritee 
et gagnee sur les champs de bataille, et (|ue le succes de ses amies 
a oblige meme ses ennemis a reconnaitre. 

2. Prenant en consideration cette guerre que I'Armenie mene 
toute seule pour, la defense de la cause des Allies et les sacrifices 
surhumains supportes jiar tons les Armeniens, j'ai I'honneur, au 
nom de la Nation Armenienne, de reclamer la place qu'elle a juste- 
ment meritee a la Conference de la Pai.x, a cote de I'Emir Faizal 
et des representants des Tcheko-Slovaks, des Polonais et des 
Sefbes. 

3. La Delegation de la Republique Armenienne declare agir 
dans tous ses actes et revendications en parfait accord avec la De- 
legation des Armeniens de Turquie, presidee a Paris par Son Ex- 
cellence Boghos Nubar Pacha. 

Veuillez agreer. Monsieur le President, I'assurance de ma tres 
haute et parfaite consideration. 

AVETIS AHARONIAN, 

President dc la Dclci/ation dc la Republique 
Anneiiienne a la Coiifereiiee de la Paix. 




74 



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